A Feeling of Importance
by LebendenToten
Summary: One seemingly normal highschool student one day, a Spartan II on his way to save the galexy with Commander Shepard and crew the next. Andrew doesnt know what the hell he has gotten himself into...(SI) This is my first Fanfic so be nice :P and constructive criticism/suggestions welcome! Rated T mainly for language, was M before.
1. Chapter 1

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Well let me start this off by saying that this is my first Fanfiction! So any constructive criticism is welcomed. So while reading Fanfiction over the past year I realized that I would continually get frustrated while reading others work, this is not because their work was not good by any means (anything that they come up with would normally be hundreds of times better than anything I came up with) but when I finished I would always be on brainstorming high if you will. Coming up with hundreds of different ideas that I couldn't do anything with at the time. So, I feel that now that I am starting my own Fanfiction I can give shape to those random ideas that bounce around in my head while waiting for one of my favorite stories to update.

So on to the actual information about the story! This will be a self-insert of sorts, this is mainly because I find some of these to be the most interesting (well to me), and that it allows you to "connect" with the main character more than the traditional protagonist. The way that this is going to work is that basically the first few chapters are going to be the protagonist (it's a self-insert of sorts) being thrown into the Halo Universe. Eventually however the protagonist will be moved into the Mass Effect universe, what I haven't decided on yet is whether or not to bring any other characters/things from the Halo universe to Mass Effect. I guess we will just have to wait and see .

Onwards to character details!

For reference to most statistics here is data on Sierra-117 (John) or the Master Chief

Height (without armor): 2.083 Meters (6'10ft.)

Height (with armor): 2.18 Meters (7'2ft.)

Weight (without Armor): 130kg. (286lb.)

Weight (with Armor): 451.3kg. (995lb.)

Armor Config for insert sections: user/Lebenden_Toten/library/?sort=3&amp;page=1

Character stuff

Name, First: Andrew

Name, Last:-REDACTED-

SPARTAN TYPE: SPARTAN II

Spartan Designation: 095 (Spartan is 095 will be who I will be "Replacing" he was chosen for the SPARTAN II Program but was never conscripted.

Specialization: CQC

Hair: Brown, Mohawk (don't judge me it was Halloween and I got a Mohawk, though I do sorta look like Vaas from Farcry 3 so… worth it)

Eyes: Hazel

Tattoo (Once in UNSC): UNSC logo, back

For reference on the following, I'm about 5'7-5'8 and 16 years old (supposed to get taller)

Weight (pre-Spartan): about 61.235 KG. (135 LB.)

Weight (post-Spartan, out of armor): about 135KG. (297.63LB.)

Weight (post-Spartan, with armor): about 456KG. (1005.31LB)

Height (pre-Spartan) about 1.7 Meters (5.7ft.)

Height (post-Spartan) about 2.13 Meters (7ft.)

Height (Post-Spartan, with armor) about 2.24 Meters (7ft. 4in.)

Random Info About me (this has some importance)

-I intend on joining the Army (or Marines still haven't decided)

-Huge Halo and Mass Effect Fan

-Play guitar (electric)

-Involved in a JROTC (well a group trying to get a JROTC at our school)

-I'm a squad leader (my men come first)

-Current Rank of Sergeant

-Seen a bunch of 'classic' war movies, "DAMMIT PRIVATE PILE"

-Considered to be a pretty decent tactician

-Always have had a desire to figure out how things work (electronics, firearms, and so on)

-I play Soccer

-Ich nehme deutch klasse! (I take German class, this is mentioned because I will sometimes use German while I am 'speaking' during some dialogue.)

Most of this will be brought up in some way, at some point.

Finally thank you all for reading this extremely long intro, and thanks to my sorta Beta reader the esteemed soviet particle physicist Dr_Yuryi_Reznov, who also happens to be a cat. Also A big thanks to all of the reference sites that I use throughout the writing of this, Halopedia being a large sources as well as the halo novels and of course the Halo and Mass Effect games.

-I will not change the timeline of either game… much…-

Author's explanations/ramblings in parenthesis, (like this!)

_Character thoughts in Italics_

Point of view Swap –(Random Character)-

WARNING: if you have not read "Halo the Fall of Reach" lots of this will not make sense (assuming any of it makes sense regardless…)

Final little note, Im not entirely sure how often i will be updating due to school reasons (just a heads up).

**I do not own MASS EFFECT, HALO, or any other references included in this Fanfic.**

Chapter One: Choices

Getting lost is normally not considered to be a good thing. Though everything (well almost everything) can lead to good when considered from a different point of view. In my case getting lost, at least today, was just drifting along the beat of the music play through my headphones as I walked home from a meeting with my JROTC group (I was in an Army ACU). To the passerby my music may have been a bit too loud, but to me it was just right. It drowned out the swish of the trees as they danced in the wind, the meaningless conversations that always filled the air, the endless problems and agendas that followed my life like a plague. Believe it or not it also blocks out the noise of a truck, driven by a drunk driver that seemed to believe that the sidewalk was meant to be used as an express lane during the afternoon traffic. One minute I am listening to a song by Rise Against and the next my face becomes a bit better acquainted with the ground and that very truck driver thinks about the rather interesting speed bump he just went over.

-(John 117's POV)-

"Hey John we found someone," came Kelly 087's voice over the radio.

"Is it one of ours or one of Menendez's instructors?" I replied.

"Well he's our age but I don't recognize him, I'm gonna move in for a better look… Oh shit, John he's banged up pretty bad, legs are twisted in all the wrong ways, lots of blood too."

"Roger that, try to stabilize him for now, I'll send Sam and James over to help out."

"Affirmative," was the quick reply she gave as the radio clicked off. I reached for our emergency link that we had to Deja (so I didn't really want to search Microsoft word for the correct symbols sorry!) or AI teacher who was on backup in case something went extremely bad during a training exercise. _I think this would count as "extremely bad"… we don't even know if this guy is UNSC, he could be an inni for all we know. _Right before I opened a connection to Deja though my comms unit crackled to life and the voice of Doctor Halsey came though my headset.

"John what's going on?!" was the first thing that came through the static. "A few moments ago we detected a large energy signature from Kelly's current position."

"We don't Know yet Ma'am," I answered. "Kelly said she found someone laying on the ground in the area, same age as ourselves and pretty banged up, I was just about the let Deja know."

"Ok, bring him back to the base with you and we will find out more about him once he has been patched up."

"Will do Ma'am, 117 out."

-(My perspective)-

_Oh, shit did anyone get the plates off that semi? _I thought as I tried to open my eyes. To my surprise I found that I couldn't, it felt like my eyelids had been attached to a set of weights. So I settled for just trying to listen. Muddied voices filled the background, as if they were behind a thick curtain. I couldn't make out everything that was said but herd the distinct words of lacerations, concussion, broken bones, and genetic requirements. _Wait, one of these things are not like the others… genetic requirements? And who the hell thought it was a good idea to take a hammer to my head, wait it wasn't a hammer… It was a truck!_

After coming to this rather frightening realization I decided it was time to look around again, and promptly failed. On the bright side my hearing was getting better though as I started to be able to hear a conversation.

"…. Driver's license….2014….21st century uniform…. Elaborate Hoax…. Impossible."

_Ok then… sounds like whoever found me is going through my stuff, but what's so odd about 2014?_

I was finally able to coax my eyes open to see a gray ceiling above my head. _YES progress! _I decided to lift my head to look around and promptly let out a groan of pain as my neck cracked in what seemed like a million places. Immediately the voices I heard earlier stopped and I started to hear footsteps coming towards me. My mind immediately jumps to worst case scenario. _Oh shit, shit, shit, shit, what if it's like aliens… or, or terrorists... Wait a sec what the hell do they have me on._ I think as I look at the IV in my arm then at the stand next to me. "Well that makes sense," I quietly say to myself as I look at the label, "morphine, huh."

My attention is immediately drawn to the door as it slides up into the ceiling, just before it disappears I see an emblem on the doorway. It was that of the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC from one of my favorite video games, Halo. "Ah shit…" I had just seen who was coming into the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 2

_Well, this is either extremely good. Or the fucking worst thing that could possibly happen, I'm gonna stay optimistic though. _I thought to myself as I watch Dr. Catharine Halsey, the creator of the Spartan II project, walk into the room. After her came a guy who looked to be about my age walk into the room behind her._ Who is that…?_

"Well it seems as if you are finally awake," the Doctor begins. "Let's start simple then shall we? What is your name?"

"Andrew *****," I say in a daze.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen," I say now, with a little bit more confidence as I take in what is going on.

"Now how the hell did you get into one of the most secure military reservations on Reach?"

_Well… that escalated quickly. _"No idea," I honestly reply.

"The ID that we found on you is a driver's license from 2014, where did you get it?"

"Uh the BMV, where else would I have gotten it from?"

"What year is it?"

"Last time I checked it was 2014 nearing 2015."

"Well it's actually 2526."( this is where the timeline is a bit different, in 2525 the SPARTANS IIs were originally augmented at the age of 14, I will be pushing this date back to maybe 2527 and the SPARTANS will be a bit older, as in closer to my age 16) After hearing this I just sort of zoned out, _Holy shit… this is real, and wait a sec, if this is Halsey then who is the other guy?_

"If you don't mind me interrupting, who is he?"

"His squad were the ones who found you in the woods." Was the curt reply.

"Does he have a name?"_ Well she hasn't labeled me a terrorist yet… I think. I might as well try my luck then… _"Does he happen to be one of the SPARTANS?" This definitely got her attention, and the probable SPARTAN sitting behind her immediately jumped to his feet.

"How do you know about my SPARTANS?" She said, her voice deathly quiet.

"I'll tell you but it would be a lot easier if I were able to show you, would it be possible for you to grab the bag that I had on me? Also I will only speak with you until this has been 'resolved'.

"Yes," She hesitantly replied. "John wait outside please."

"Yes Ma'am," Was the quick rely as he exited the room.

As soon as he left Halsey got up and went over to a storage locker on the other side of the room removing my bag and my Army ACU from the locker. She set them down near the side of the bed that I was situated on and looked at me expectantly before saying, "Time for some answers then."

"Well uh what if I told you that the last thing I remember was walking down the street in 2014 with my headphones before I, well I got run over."

"So are you saying that you have no idea how you got here?"

"I thought I had already communicated that point but yea. I think I may have a better way of going about this whole explaining myself thing if it's alright with you." She gestured for me to continue. _Well if Fanfiction has told me anything listing off some of the most important things that occur in the universe at the time period you find yourself in normally works out pretty well, here goes I guess. _You Name is Doctor Catherine Halsey, you are currently acting as a civilian contractor for ONI section three and you are in charge of the SPARTAN II project. Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin _Mendez is the current head of the training portion of the program and you are currently working on one of the main goals of the project, physically enhancing the SPARTANS through surgically and genetically altering them as well as creating a unique armor system that will enhance their abilities even further, this system is named MJOLNOR. Shall I continue?"_

_"….How do you know this? Most of this is not even in the ONI databases and only exists on my private database if that."_

_"This is where we get to the really fuckin weird part that I am not even close to understanding. The uniform that I wearing, that is because I was the current XO of a JROTC at my school and was on my way home from a leadership planning event that we had held at the high school. If you look in my bag you will find all of my school shit, books and all. Now if you would kindly open up my bag there is a book titled 'Halo the Fall of Reach'."_

_"Wait a moment," Halsey cut me off. "Did you say the fall of Reach?" She asked as an alarmed look crossed her face._

_Well at least she seems to believe me so far… Progress! __"Have you ever heard of the multiverse theory?"_

_"…I think they may have put you on a little too much morphine," she said as she stood and began walking towards the door. _

_"Whoa, Whoa, just give me a chance here, that book has basically the future in it, and if you don't believe I'm from 2014 just look at what my papers are dated or look me up from census data from the time, I bet you I will either show up as well dead obviously or I won't even 'exist'. At least please give what I'm saying a chance, I don't know maybe read a little of the book, I would warn you against reading too far though there are some things that if we fuck them up, well even I wouldn't know what would happen at that point. You see your universe existed in mine, except well to put it bluntly it was a work of fiction."_

_"I will look into this book a little and see if I believe what you say after that, but if what you say turns out to be true we will need to hide you from ONI, they would do almost anything to get their hands on you. I may have a solution to that though, don't worry about that now though. Your probably tired get some sleep and I will be back when you wake to discuss what we do from here."_

_You know I am sorta tired now that I think about it… Wait what could her plan be to hide me from ONI? Oh shit, didn't she say something about genetic requirements earlier... If that means what I think it does, this could get very interesting in a very short amount of time._


	3. Chapter 3

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance Chapter 3

Well I'd like to start off by saying thank you to all of you that have offered their opinions on what I have so far and have been encouraged by what I have seen! As an announcement I would like to state that I will be attempting to upload every Monday and Friday. The key word in that is 'try'. Anyways, onto the story!

Also Thanks to edboy492 He brought up a good point in his review that I could have just had all of the Halo books on 'My' phone (I actually do IRL), and well the only reason this is not the case was because, well I forgot :P. Also thanks to him for the rest of the feedback!

As a response to JJ, I will consider the idea but originally I was going to go with the main character going into the ME universe. I'm doing this for the reason that I believe the possibilities for the story are much more prevalent and the universe more expansive!

As a side note, over half of this chapter was the product of my biology class… I probably should have been taking notes… but what the hell, I was bored. :P

As usual I appreciate all of your feedback!

Also new thing to add to the 'key' Time shift amount of time

-(Halsey's perspective)-

I can't help but to shake my head as I walk away from the infirmary where we had the boy that John's team found, Andrew. As crazy as his story sounded I wanted to believe him, and I didn't even know why. It was probably because of all of the classified information he was able to pull out of thin air, anyways maybe it's time for me to take a look at that book of his…

Time shift 5 hours later

-(My perspective)-

I awake to the sound of what would seem to be a pressurized door. _Well here's to hoping this hasn't all been a dream and that Halsey believes me. If she doesn't… I don't even want to think about that, it wouldn't end well for me._

"Well, I believe you."

I opened my eyes to see Halsey standing at the other side of the room._ Well there is that taken care of. Now what, wait didn't she mention something about hiding me from ONI before I went out?_

"Now, we need to figure out what to do with you. If we hand you to ONI you will probably be locked away for the rest of your life and probably tortured for information."

"Yea… I would like to avoid that if possible." I interrupted.

"As any sane person would," was her reply. "Anyway, I have a proposition for you."

"So like an opportunity kind of thing, or an, if you don't do this bad shit happens kind of scenario. I'm guessing it will be the latter option.

"And you would find yourself correct."

"Well shit…"

"Indeed."

We sat there in silence for a few minutes, me hoping for my earlier guess as to what she had come up with as a solution. _Ah damn I hope I'm right about this if I am this is either going to be fun as hell or suck worse than anything. _After a few moments of just sitting there I expectantly looked towards the doctor. "So uh, care to share your marvelous plan?"

"How would you like to be a SPARTAN?

_HA I WAS RIGHT YEA MOTHERFUCKERS LOOK WHOS GONNA BE A SPARTAN!_

"I'm guessing you already know my answer, don't you?"

"Well considering the way that your universe perceives the future achievements of my SPARTANS… Yes, I have a good idea."

"Well I would be honored to join, I have a few requests however."

"As long as they are reasonable, I think I can work with that."

_YES! On to the fun part._

"You ready?" I ask and she nods in reply. "Ok then, Schematics for UNSC firearms and vehicles, as well as training in how to build and maintain said systems. I would also like to be able to customize my MJOLNER, well when it's ready that is. Also…

-(Halsey's perspective)-

"… I would like a secure priority link to you and Mendez at all times."

_Why would he need that? _

I started to ask why but was swiftly interrupted as he hastened to explain.

"This would be so I could notify one or both of you to possible future events, because of my, well 'unique' source of information."

_Ah that makes a bit more sense now._ He continued to rant on, naming as many as five currently blacklisted projects and even more information on the SPARTANS.

A few minutes later

"And that's about it, is that reasonable?" he said as he finally ended, the hesitation evident in his voice.

_Well he certainly was practical with his list, and reasonable, he even backed up his reasoning for almost everything… Well reasonable on everything with the exception of asking for a Paris class frigate, although I suspect he was being sarcastic about that… I think. _ "Yes," I replied to him. "Well everything except for the frigate…"

"Ah well, It was worth a shot," he said with a playful look in his eyes. "So, when can I start?" he asked as he took up a more serious look.

"Well the SPARTANS are about to go through their biggest challenge yet," I told him."

-(My POV)-

"Well fuck…" _ I think I know what she's talking about, it's probably the…_

Smiley face and internet points for all those who review!


	4. Chapter 4

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance chapter 4

Well don't start to expect updates so close together! I'm just putting this up because AP US history is doing its best to kick my ass… Also I would like to start out by saying thank you to all of you that reviewed the last chapter, 5 internet points to each of you! (thinking about doing a contest, first to 100 internet points gets a spot of some kind in the story, what do you think?) Also who would like to see some footage of me and a couple buddies playing Airsoft/paintball in the future, a good buddy of mine has a go-pro and I could possibly link to some of the footage of us playing (just 4 fun).\

Actual start of the chapter: P

"Well fuck…" _I think I know what she is talking about, it's probably the augmentations, shit. _"Augmentations?" I ask.

"Correct," Halsey replied. "I'm guessing that's in your book?"

"Yea… you didn't read that far did you?"

She confirmed with a nod of her head

"Well… I don't know how to put this, but it's really gonna suck."

"How bad will it be?" She hesitantly asked.

"It will have the most SPARTAN II casualties of any single 'operation' ever"

"Damn…"

"It is not your fault though, ONI won't give you the time that you need."

"Wait, a second ago, didn't you say SPARTAN II casualties, are you implying that more SPARTANS will be made?"

_Fuck! Me and my big mouth. _"Um… yes, I did."

After I finished saying that an angry look crossed her face.

"You may want to have a 'chat with COL. Ackerson… or introduce him to the SPARTANS well in a few years that is, he hasn't done anything yet… I think."

As she considered this I prepared to ask a question of my own. One that had been on my mind since I found out I would be a SPARTAN II… well assuming I survived the augmentations. "If I may ask, which group of SPARTANS will I be working with?" I asked a little bit apprehensively. She looked up at me, the beginning of a grin on her face. She then called

"John, come on in."

_Holy fuck… I'm on blue team._

"John, Andrew here is the newest recruit for the SPARTAN program. He will be joining you on Blue team. Do you think that you guys can help him catch up on some of the advanced training?"

"Of course Ma'am."

"Good to hear. Ok then Andrew, you are now released from bed rest and you are to go get acquainted with the rest of your team. Your clothes are in the locker over on the wall, the rest of you possessions will be returned to you at some point in the future." After saying this she then proceeded to walk out of the room.

_ Well… that was fast_

John cleared his throat and then addressed me, "Once your dressed go to hanger bay 3, we are about to ship out for something new, Dr. Halsey tells me it's a non-combat exercise, so you ok for now."

"Got it." I replied ready to get moving and meet the rest of the team.

"And just to get this out of the way now, I don't trust you yet… Dr. Halsey refused to tell me anything about you beyond the fact that your position in the squad will be a multi-role one, CQC, demolitions, and engineer."

_Well at least he hasn't completely rejected me… right?_

"That doesn't mean that you will never be part of 'the group' but it does mean that you have to earn your place."

_I can do that… I think._

"That is all and I'll see you in a few hours."

"Later then."

After our brief but nerve racking conversation I got up out of bed (I was in a bed ion the hospital wing the whole time) and went over to the locker Halsey had mentioned and grabbed my clothes, which believe it or not were still the ACUS (Army Combat Uniform) that I had arrived in the universe with. _ Well this will lead to some interesting conversations… person one says… Why is that guy wearing a uniform that looks like it came straight out of a history vid? Person two says… maybe he's just a fagot, yea that must be it! Well at least it may make the SPARTANS think a bit more highly of me… maybe._

After finishing my mental ramblings I finished getting on my uniform and walked out the med bay door and nearly walked right into a UNSC quartermaster with a rucksack and a few other items held in his arms.

"You Andrew?" he asked.

"… Yea," I replied a bit questioningly as I looked more closely at the load he was carrying.

"Well here is your kit, the Doc asked me to get it to you."

"Thanks."

"No problem" he replied as he dumped the assortment of gear at my feet.

I started to pick up the gear and in the case of items such as what seemed to be the modern equivalent of a plate carrier, helmet, and other essential gear, put on. After going through the pile I saw two separate items sitting side by side that made me as happy as a little kid on Christmas morning… before me lay a M45 Tactical Shotgun and a M6G Magnum. After the mandatory moment of awe for looking upon such great firearms, not to mention the fact that didn't in my wildest dreams think that I would ever see the real things, I finished going through the pile and found a small tacpad that looked like it could easily clip onto my armor that had a folded note attached to it. It said, here is the secure link you requested, both Mendez's and myself have our com codes in it, Good luck SPARTAN 095, Doctor Catharine Halsey.

_Andrew, Spartan 095, I think I can get used to hearing that…_

/

Thankyou all for reading! Let me know what you think, I'm extremely encouraged by the feedback I have recited, well most of it at any rate. I find it funny and inspiring that my first ever Fanfiction almost has more views than the YouTube channel which I started over a year ago when this story has been up for only around three weeks!


	5. Chapter 5

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance Chapter 5

-(My POV)-

After getting all of my new gear sorted out/equipped I looked up and realized, _I have no fucking idea where hanger bay 3 is…_ After coming to this realization I ran off in the direction that I saw the guy that had given me my kit go.

"Hey! Wait a sec, where are the hanger bays?"

"You really are new, aren't you?"

"…Yea"

"Well, if you go down that hallway on the left and go into that junction and take the hallway with the red markings over it, continue down that hallway and then eventually you will reach the hangers."

"Thanks for your help!"

"No problem kid."

I walked away in the direction he pointed out trying to go through all of the possible things that the rest of the SPARTANS would say when they saw me. As I neared the junction that the quartermaster had mentioned I finally decided that worrying about the meeting was not going to help anything and instead just started going through anything that I think could help me in my "new" life. By the time I had reached the hallway leading towards the hangers I had decided just to make the best of it, try to make some new friends, and if possible avoid another meeting, _well almost meeting, I _the reaper (you know, as in death).

I walked down the hall and was almost immediately ran over by a group of ODSTs in full kit.

"Watch where you're going kid!" one yelled as the barreled by.

"Assholes…" I muttered to myself. Suddenly I heard the sound of a whole squad of armored boots come to a standstill. _Fuck… this is just perfect_.

"What was that squirt? I didn't quite hear you." Said what appeared to be the lead ODST. He had mat black armor with dark red detailing, and I couldn't help but notice as he slowly advanced on me, a rather large bowie knife attached to his belt.

"Ah… Nothing." I said trying to force a tone of innocence into the words.

"Sure… hey guys, I think the little man here needs a bit of a lesson in respect, what do you think?" A chorus of yes sir was heard all round. _Ah son of a bitch. _The ODST began moving towards me again, the others in his squad cheering him on. I had to make a decision and fast, so I did what any other guy dreads in a fight. I promptly kicked him in the nuts… and ran like a bitch.

-(John's POV)-

"You guys have any idea what this operation is about?" asked Fred. We were all sitting around the pelican that we were designated to take to our next assignment.

"No idea" James replied, "It must be something important though if we are all gonna be going."

"Yea… It is sorta odd. John, what do you think?"

"Well…" I started to answer, only to be interrupted by a loud crash and the sounds of yelling in the hallway outside the hanger. "Wait did you guys hear that." After saying that everyone immediately went quiet. As the noises of what appeared to be fighting came closer I ordered the rest of my comrades to take defensive positions. Once we were in positions covering the doorway into the hall we waited. Eventually we heard the pounding of armored boots on the titanium floor plates and unintelligible yelling. Eventually we heard one voice stand out slightly from the rest, one that I recognized.

"Sie sind alle Bastardsöhnevon ein paar Schwanz Gurgeln Huren!"(Why in German you ask… well think of it this way, no matter what you say in that language it appears threatening. Translation at end)

On hearing this all of the SPARTANS that had specialized in linguistics during their training broke out into fits of laughter. Some laughing so hard that they had trouble maintaining a steady aim at the door. Immediately following this a figure dressed in mainly the same gear we had barged through the doorway and took up position just within the doorway and to the side, after doing this they proceeded to raise their shotgun as is they were preparing to take the plate during one of the old earth baseball games. This is when he noticed the rest of us in the room. He raised a hand in greeting and then went back to watching the doorway. Hesitantly a few of those watching the door with me replied in kind, a look of confusion present on their faces. _What the hell is he doing?_ A few seconds later my unasked question was answered… well in a way. A fully armored ODST came around the corner, a rather pissed off looking ODST at that. Not even a second after he came through the door the newest SPARTAN II, 095, Andrew, introduced the ODST to a bit of shotgun diplomacy… in quite the literal sense.

-(My Point of view)-

_Well this is going better than I originally planned, I even managed to find the right hanger… _I drew back my shotgun again for another swing at the next unlucky bastard that stuck his head through the door. I wasn't a second to late either because Just when I had fully wound back my makeshift club another ODST came running through the door, this time it was the one that I had previously, well injured, for lack of a better word. "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER." All the guy experienced before getting knocked the hell out was one thought, that he had just been beaten by a fucking teenager.

-(John's POV)-

"Well everyone," I said to the rest of my fellow trainees, half of which were rolling on the ground crying from laughter. "I guess now is as good a time as any for introductions, meet Andrew, SPARTAN 095…"

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The German bit the translation of this is roughly 'you are all the bastard sons of cock gargling whores'…


	6. Chapter 6

Lebebenden_Toten

Chapter 6

Well I just wanted to start out by saying wow, Its somewhat hard to believe that my first ever fanfiction has about double the amount of views that my failure of a YouTube channel had after a whole year… So I just wanted to take a second to thank all of you who have read so far and an even bigger thanks to those that have encouraged me to keep going and given some great feedback!

Well that first paragraph of the authors note was written when this chapter was started… like two weeks ago. I guess I have to apologize about being late (don't kill me) by quite a bit on an update. However I do have 2 reasonable excuses for this… One is that next week is finals for me, an in all honesty I really need to study for these, which is what I've been doing. The other excuse is I had a little over 700 words done last week, but I didn't want to put out a shorter chapter than those that I have already uploaded, I have wanted to put out longer chapters because well 1000 words is sorta short.. And I would like to finish the authors note by answering the guest reviewers question… Soon, as in like maybe 2/3 chapters at the most.

Also, as a side note, almost all of this chapter was typed on my fucking phone in the middle of class… I was rlly bored that day.

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-(John's POV)-

"Ok 095, regroup." He looked at me questioning then looked back at the door before he complied. "Fill me in on what happened, I have contacted the base security to deal with the rest of the ODSTs, but first of all who started it?"

"They did sir, I was on my way to report in here when they stopped me in the hall." he explained, "when they stopped me they began to threaten me so I treated them as such and then moved on to make my way here and they gave chase."

"Why were they pursuing you on your way here?" I questioned, it seemed as if I hadn't yet gotten the full story.

"Sir I believe they were slightly angry with me after I attempted to prematurely end the conflict while I had the advantage." _Alan advantage against a full squad of ODSTs? This I have to hear._

"When you say advantage, what exactly do you mean by that?" right was he was about to respond I heard a groan from across the room, when I looked back over I saw one of the troopers that 095 had hit when they came through the door start to get up. I looked a little closer and noticed a few prevent things, one thi spend more time than was probably healthy at the gym, two his mask was cracked from where 095 hit him, _damn at first I thought he didn't look very strong but he's probably on part with at least one our stronger guys. _The Last thing I noticed was that he looked rather pissed off one he had dusted himself off.

"Sir," I said trying to get his attention. "This is a restricted area, I'm going to have to have you leave the hangers until we are gone." he didn't pay any attention to me but instead had his eyes locked on the back of 095 as he made his way towards us, once he got within a few he pulled a rather large knife out of a sheath attached to the thigh plate of his armor. He twirled it around a few times as he continued to slowly advance towards us. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you again," I started before he interrupted,

"Stay outta this, this is between me and this cocky little bastard," he said as he motioned towards 095 with his knife. Just after he finished saying that Dr. Halsey's voice came over the hanger bay PA system,

"SPARTANS, pack your gear and load onto the pelicans, we are leaving in five." immediately after hearing this everyone seemed to freeze for a minute, and then we came back to reality with the sight of 095 jumping at the ODST that had just moments before been threatening him. I watched as he pushed back on the trooper's helmet as he swept the Helljumper legs out from under him and proceed to guide his head down until hit a nearby storage crate with a dull thud. he lay the unmoving as 095 dusted off his hands then walked inside of the pelican taking a seat by two of the other SPARTANS on blue team, Fred and Kelly. _I honestly don't know whether to reprimand him for injuring fellow UNSC personnel or to thank him for ending the situation... What the hell are we going to do with this guy?_

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-(My POV)-

The ride up into Reach's orbit wasn't really a long one, but it certainly was a bit grim

_I wonder why everyone is so quiet… wait, do they even know what this "Mission" is? Has Halsey even told them? _After coming to the realization that she probably hadn't I leaned over towards Kelly, one of the other SPARTAN trainees who was sitting next to me on the shuttle. "Hey, do you know what we are doing?" I asked. She looked at me a bit oddly, probably because she had just met me around 10 minutes ago when I was running for my life from a group of angry ODSTs. She then replied.

"What the hell makes you think that I would know?" After she said that the pod fell back into an awkward silence. We continued to sit there, checking our gear and just thinking of what was to come anxious for the coming mission, well I was the only one that actually knew what the mission entailed, but that didn't make the feeling go away. Finally the pilot's voice came over the comms system in our helmets,

"All right People we will be arriving at Achilles station in five, be ready."

_Well, here we go, this is the make or break moment of being a SPARTAN, If I got sucked out of my own dimension and into the SPARTAN program just to die during the augmentation process, you can bet your life on the fact that on my way up to heaven I will be one pissed off mother fucker…_


	7. Chapter 7

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance Chapter 7

Um… yea, it's been a while since I last uploaded. Sorry about that, it was mainly because of exams and then Christmas which I was out of town for a while. These reasons and I had a little bit of writers block, I'm not used to writing very often . Oh and the final reason… I have been playing an unhealthy amount of Rocksmith 2014 (this I do not regret :P). Anyways onto the story! (Reviews help with motivation!)

By the way, who went to see American Sniper?

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-(My POV)-

A Dull thud came through the walls of the hull of the pelican as we docked with the station. _Oh Shit, Oh Shit, Oh Shit. This is the real deal, I mean up until this point its sorta been a fucking awesome experience if a little bit hazardous… but now, I mean shit I can actually die within like the next couple of hours. _

"OI, new guy! What the hell are you doing?"

I looked up to see Sam one of the other Spartans at the end of the pelicans ramp an no one else in sight. _Huh, I must have zoned out. _ "I'm coming sorry zoned out a little bit there. Thanks for waiting by the way."

"No problem, even if you're new us Spartans work better as a team, even if we have never had a new guy before… How did you even get in, Halsey, when we were brought in originally told us that we were chosen, and you well, you just showed up."

"Uh well, it's a bit of a long story, and I'm pretty sure it's classified, you would have to ask Halsey herself."

"One of those things?"

"Yeah just one of those things." After saying this we continued on in silence until we eventually caught up with the others. After finding everyone else it wasn't long before we reached our destination. We arrived in a large room, somewhat like an auditorium. On the stage stood Doctor Halsey and Chief Mendez and some doctor/surgeon looking guy. As we all took our seats I heard Fred, one of the other Spartans quietly mutter to himself

"Well this should be interesting…"

_Indeed it shall._ I thought to myself, mentally preparing myself up for what was about to happen.

"Ok people!" Chief Mendez's voice rang through the auditorium. "Today is the day, the day that you finally go fourth to become real Spartans. This will be the greatest challenge faced by many of you up to this point. I want to let you know that probably not all of you will make it out of this fully intact, However it has been a great challenge to get you all to the point you are now, and if some of you don't make it through this, so help me god I will beat your asses to hell in the afterlife. In all seriousness though, I have never seen a group of people who have been able to accomplish what you all have, the unit cohesion the tactical effectiveness, granted this is all in practice but it has been an honor to work with you all." After he finished he stepped back to allow Dr. Halsey to address everyone.

"When I call your number you are to exit out the door to your left and follow the medical orderly that is waiting for you outside, they will lead you to your destination and you are to follow their instructions. Any questions?" The room was silent and I looked around to view a mostly grim assortment of looks from the rest of the Spartans. "Ok then, 001…002…003….." -She continued going through her list and as time went the auditorium started to feel a bit smaller… eventually Sam's name was called.

"Well good luck new guy."

"Huh, oh yea you too, see ya on the other side." After Sam left I sorta sat there. Eventually I heard the number called, my number.

"095 you're up…" I looked around to see who had said this and saw the fucking future Master Chief looking at me, and yet again the full gravity of the situation hit me like a fucking train. I nodded at him as I stood up and began to walk towards the door the Dr. had mentioned earlier. Immediately after exiting the auditorium I came face to face with one of the med techs Halsey had mentioned.

"If you would follow me please."

I followed the tech through the winding corridors until we finally reached a door labeled 095… _I guess this is my stop then. _They walked into the room and I followed. After entering the room they helped me get ready for the augmentation process. Eventually it was time for the procedure to commence, I lay down and the operating table and the med tech strapped me down to the table, this was slightly unsettling but I knew why it was necessary after reading about the augmentations in the "real" world. Eventually they started strapping a mask to my face, this I assumed is for anesthesia during the process. As everything started to fade around the only thing I could think was, _Oh fuck this is gonna hurt…_


	8. Chapter 8

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of importance chapter 8

(My P.O.V.)

I could hear voices fading in and out, they didn't sound quite right though, it sounded like they were at the far end of a tunnel. Along with be able to hear again, albeit not without understanding, I started to feel a dull pain in the back of my head. After a while the confusing mutterings started to clear and I started to be able to distinguish some of the things they were saying. "Procedure… recover… Side effects… Awaken…"

The last word acted like a command and instantly my world went from the cool dark to a blinding white… and then from there to a deep red…_ EVERYTHING BURNS! _

(Halsey's P.O.V.)

The med tech droned on as we stepped into the room where the newest cadet had just finished the majority of his augmentations. "So is everything going well?" I asked.

"Yes Ma'am everything has going according to your predictions for the augmentation process in 095's case."

"Good…" I stared to reply before the tech continued, a slightly worried look crossing their face.

"However, some side effects have occurred other than what was mentioned in the briefing that we were given. His rapid eye movement has increased over the projected amount and he seems to be fighting the sedatives, not to mention the painkillers are doing almost nothing according to what we have found on some of the instruments. If he keeps on fighting the sedatives at his current rate we are probably going to up the amount we are giving him, or risk him waking during the cool down period after the operation finishes."

Make the change and alert me when he is on the cool down or if something else comes up" I replied.

"Will do doctor." Was the tech's quick response as I began to leave the room.

_Well definitely not as bad as some of the others, though he could be doing better, some of those symptoms are slightly worrying._

/Med techs P.O.V. 30 minutes later/

"Well this is definitely not good." I said to myself. Cadet 095's blood pressure had just started a steady climb about 3 minutes into the cool down period after the operation was done. Equally if not more worrying however was the fact that his hands had started to twitch, clenching and unclenching. _Shit I hope the doc gets here soon, this is definitely not supposed to happen, and I'm starting to worry for my safety, even though he's in titanium a restraints. With what the doc is saying about these guys capabilities… well I'm slightly worried._

(Halsey's P.O.V.)

_ The tech sounded a bit panicked, I hope there is no real cause for concern however. From what he has told me about his own background and from what I heard of the incident back at the base with the ODSTs, not even mentioning the fact that he knows/claims to know about an upcoming war, hell it makes him a valuable asset. When, refined, though of course…_

Halsey finally reached the medical room marked 095 and opened the door. What she found on the other side was a slightly panicked medical technician and a still sedated but now fully augmented SPARTAN II.

"OK give me a status report." I asked the med tech as I made my way into the room.

"Yes Ma'am, Vitals are holding stead though REM activity and BPM are fluctuating. Also he seems to be fighting through the sedatives even faster than before. If we were to give him any higher than the current dose it would potentially be lethal, even after all the augmentations." He then proceeded to rattle off a list of other specifics about how the procedure went, it seemed that the augmentations had a slightly larger effect on 095 than many of the other SPARTANS, not by a huge amount though. I looked down at personal tablet that was monitoring all of the SPARTAN's procedures and the recovery process for those that were already up and about. _It may be a good idea to get one of them that are up and about in here before we wake him up, the extra REM activity and higher BPM weren't very common in the cases we have seen so far and we don't want a repeat of some of the events that followed that… Ah Sam is up, I'll just send a message out to his current "Handler" to get him over here. _After the message was sent I motioned for the tech to join me in prepping 095 for coming out of sedation.

A few moments later Sam came through the door, a little bit unsteady with his new augmentations but more importantly was coherent enough for the task at hand. "Ok Sam," I began. "We need you to hold him down while we bring him back up, don't want him to react… well let's just say, badly." He nodded in understanding and then moved into position to hold down 095 if anything got well out of hand. "Ok cut the sedatives." _Here goes nothing…_

(My P.O.V.)

The world slowly came back the fluorescent lights slowly coming into focus above me. Then I became aware of the fact that there was currently a pressure on my shoulders as if someone was holding me down, that and the fact that I had a massive headache. "Holy shit, anyone got some pain meds?" I heard a laugh and looked up to the now almost giant looking Sam that was holding me down.

"So you made it through, congrats," He said.

"Looks like you beat me to it."

"You better get used to it." Was his joking reply.

I heard a different voice from across the room, Halsey. "Yes congratulations SPARTAN 095, and Sam I am afraid 095 may have a different duty station than the rest of you."

_What the fuck does that mean? This keep getting weirder and weirder._

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Yea… so I said at the beginning of the chapter that I was trying to make this chapter longer… well I wrote that bit about a month ago. I just wanted to put out a quick apology #1 for not updating in so long and #2 this chapter is kind sorta really short. I don't want to sound like a little bitch making excuses all the time but my life has really been busy recently and I have had a hard time keeping up, what with School getting a job (yay… I think) and planning a large charity event for my school's JROTC group/thing (that coincidentally I am now the commanding officer of… wish me luck). Also I sorta lost motivation and had a bit of writers block, reviews help my writing motivation people! Final note, I started a new fanfiction on SAO and that has taken some of my time but I fell that it is easier to write on alternating topics so I don't get overly bored on one. Anyways, thank you all for your time, Lebenden_Toten

p.s. If any of you want to add me on steam or league of legends, to either bug me to update, or play with me :P, my users will be below.

Steam: [AOD]Lebenden_Toten

League of Legends: Drakeal


	9. Chapter 9

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance Chapter 9

Ah whats this? An update within a semi reasonable amount of time? Wow… So yea I've been rather busy recently in life, between planning a large event for my JROTC, graduation testing, (don't know why im taking it as a sophomore, its like the tests were designed with 6th graders in mind) work stuff, and car problems. But here is a chapter a new chapter for your enjoyment! Please tell me what you think in a PM or review, it really helps motivate me to continue writing.

My steam user: [AOD]Lebenden_Toten

My League of Legends summoner name: Drakeal

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/A few days after augmentations/

"So, what is it today?" I asked John as we walked through the hallways of this ship currently taking us away from the medical station.

"Weights, you still need to catch up some." Was his reply as we continued down the path that we had been down a few times before. John and I were two of the first SPARTANs to recover from the augmentation process, albeit with the side effects of bleeding eyes and such… Still hadn't gotten over that part. Over the previous days we had gone over some weapons training as well as some tests to see what I already knew in terms of military training and the likes. Needless to say I was rather far behind compared to the rest of the SPARTANs, but in the words of Halsey herself, "You shall catch up, it can't be too hard after what you have already faced."

"We are here." Johns said, his voice pulling back to the present. "There is probably no one else up yet, just us. Just go on some of the basic equipment and we will see how well you are doing to start.

"Got it" I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something I should be remembering from the books or games… _Has to be something from the books, games only cover full on SPARTAN stuff. _As I watched John walk off towards the bench press I suddenly realized what was about to happen. _Ah Shit, time to see how affective those augmentations are I guess… _ I proceeded to go about my own business moving about the machines and testing my limits, which to me delight were much higher than they logically should have been. _I don't remember being able to lift this much before, must mean that the augmentations worked! _I looked over to see John fooling around with one of the Pins that was used to hold the weights on the bench press. _Must be confused about some of the changes resulting from his augmentations, I remember this all too well from the books. I also happen to remember the fight caused by his little experiment._

About a half hour had passed before anything interesting happened. A few men in ODST fatigues walked in and immediately made their way to the high G section of the gym (high gravity, it is because the book describes this area as being a sort of spinning disk to maintain the artificial gravity) and began to lift. Eventually they made their way over to the bench press John had been messing with earlier. _Ah here it comes._ I thought to myself as I started to make my way over towards John. I knew what was about to happen next, and I'd be damned it I let a comrade down in a fight. A loud yell came from the ODSTs as some of the weights fell off the bar. _Any second now._ I thought to myself as I watched the ODSTs scramble around looking for the cause of the equipment's failure. As they were looking I finally stepped up next to John as he too watched the scene with interest. Eventually the Helljumpers managed to find the locking pin that John had forgotten to replace.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" one exclaimed. "WHO'S THE FUCKIN IDIOT THAT DID THIS?" he asked making me mentally face palm. _Bro connect the fuckin dots, there are six people in here… three of which are with you, what the hell are you waiting for? A sign lit up over John or I's head saying that "THEY DID IT"? I mean I knew ODSTs could be dense sometimes… but really. _Eventually however John admitted to it.

"The error was mine, I apologize" he said, quick and to the point. After hearing this three of the ODSTs began making their way towards us, cracking their knuckles and acting in a way that would normally terrify any regular marine who would have pissed them off. The one that stayed behind looked like a Sergeant and in all honesty looked a little bored, almost as if it happened all the time. Which I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, after all they are ODSTs.

"So," started the lead ODST as they started to near us. "You think it's funny to fuck with the weight equipment eh? Those weights could have broken my fucking foot!"

"I fail to see how that would have been beneficial to me, I already told you it was an accident and as I said before, I apologize." Replied John, levelheaded as ever.

"I don't like your attitude you little shit." Said the ODST as he came to stand right in front of John. As he did he tensed up, readying for a fight, looking out the corner of my eye I saw John had noticed too.

"Hey knuckleheads!" yelled the Sergeant. "If you want to fight so badly, take it to the ring. I don't feel like cleaning blood off the floor." He said the last part with a little grin as he looked at his ODSTs.

John began moving towards the ring, and I followed. _Not sure if this is a good or bad idea to get involved in this… Ah fuck it, I'm doing it._ "This should be interesting" I muttered to John as we made our way to the ring. He just gave me a quick glance and kept moving. We reached the edge of the ring and clambered over the ropes, the ODSTs were quick to follow. It seemed they were quite eager to fight.

"All right boys go when you're ready and scream if anyone gets hurt…" The ODSTs chuckled at that and looked at us a worrying look in their eyes. They thought they were going to basically be going against a pair of moving punching bags. _Oh how wrong they really are…_ They began to spread out trying to box in the two of us, we just brought up our fists and waited. Over the last few days I had sparred with John trying to catch up to the level the SPARTANs were at in terms of hand to hand combat. I wasn't anything close to the amount of proficiency that they had achieved, but I seemed to have a knack for it and John told me I was learning fast. Needless to say I don't think John and I were in any danger of losing this 'little' scuffle.

Eventually the ODSTs were all in position and they struck at once. Two went for John while the third lashed out at me. Ducking down to dodge the quick right hook that was thrown at me I moved to his left and almost on instinct my left hand flew out towards his side, fingers already clenched into a fist. My strike connected and a sharp snapping noise could be heard over the man's string of rather colorful language. Not even a minute into the fight and I was already called at least three things that I had never heard before one of which was 'an annoying little fucklet', interesting choice of words. He then continued to try to land a hit on me as I weaved around him putting my new augmentations to the test. Eventually though, after I got another hit in, this time on his hand oddly enough, there was more creative cursing directed in my direction and then he decided to change his tactics. One moment I am dodging a particularly wild uppercut, then the next he lashes out with his foot. _Note… To… Self… ODSTs do not… fight fair._ A hit below the belt is not a fun experience… at all, it is even worse when you have a rather angry Spec-Ops trooper coming after you.

As one may guess this made me rather… well, pissed off. I took a few more hits before I recovered but when I did I looked up at the ODST, a slight red tinge darkening my vision. He was grinning. _I would love to see that grin smeared across the nearest bulkhead…_ Reaching towards him, no longer caring about, nor feeling the blows that were raining down on me I grabbed his arm, and pulled. The first thing that was heard was a sharp popping sound, not unlike that of a severely dislocated shoulder. The next thing was a scream as the ODST went flying through the air and out of the ring. This was followed by a loud crash as said trooper hit a stack of weights near the edge of the room. The final thing heard was the Sergeants rather simple but accurate assessment of the situation… "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Was it mentioned that the trooper's rather short flight went directly over the man's head?

After finishing off my attacker I looked over to see John had… finished with the other two. One was obviously dead, while the other looked like he was in critical condition if not on his death bed. The Sergeant made to run out of the room for help, but before he could Four Corpsmen came running through the door. They were followed by Chief Mendez and an ODST Officer. A quick conversation between the Sergeant, Mendez, and the Officer went by and the Sergeant realized that his men had just fought 'them' as he put it. In other words SPARTANs.

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HOLY SHIT LOOK WHO UPDATED :P

In all seriousness thanks to all of you have stuck with me! I'm sorry about the update times, it's just that my life has been VERY busy as of recent months. There is also the fact that every time I sit down to write I have a hard time coming up with the right things to say. ANYWAY, thank you all for reading. I think this is my longest Chapter yet though (3/4 of which I wrote in the last two hours or so :P)

So, can we get some reviews for my longest chapter yet? (PLS) A heads up though, more reviews=probably faster updates, also I try to respond to all of you who do review!


	10. Chapter 10

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 10

Believe me when I say that I am just as excited as you guys when I finally get an update out! I actually really enjoy writing this and love all of your wonderful feedback. So first of all I would like to address all of the reviews that I haven't been able to respond to by PM (because guests). Also I got GTA V for the PC… So much fun.

My Steam: [AOD]Lebenden_Toten

My League of Legends: Drakeal

Question: Blah Blah Blah

Answer: Blah Blah Blah

Guest: This is great and I'm enjoying it immensely however...  
I still have a question regarding the mass effect tag? Will this arc start soon or later in the halo verse like at the end of halo 3 of him disappearing with Jorge in the reach campaign etc etc

Answer: Thanks for the feedback I love to hear that people enjoy my writing. As for when the Mass Effect stuff will come in… this chapter is going to be a lot of time skips methinks! In other words SOON (believe me I want it to come)

As for the other guests who left all the kinds words for me, thank you. I'm humbled that you all take the time out of you day to read my little story here on fanfiction!

Last little note, I'm gonna change Andrew/095's (in other words me) armor set up, looking back I'm not too happy with my original idea on the armor configuration.

Question for you guys! Have any of you heard of Rammstein? They are a German industrial metal band (I know I'm crazy) and oddly enough I normally listen to them while I write (don't know how, it just works for me).

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/A few months later/

(My P.O.V.)

The light was blinding as we stood on the stage. _This is it, I can't believe this is actually happening. _ The other SPARTANs and I looked out over the auditorium at the various high ranking military personnel that were seated there. As we stood there, all in a line, standing at attention a host of trainers, techs, and doctors, all of which had been a part of the SPARTAN project in some way came up to a podium that was situated off towards the left of the stage. At the podium they spoke about their experiences in the program and how it charged them, so on and so forth.

After about an hour of the various members of the project staff speaking Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez took to the stage. There was one major difference in what they said compared to the others when speaking of their experiences. They didn't speak about us as weapons, but as people, as the teenagers that we technically still were. They tried to show that under the image of a perfect soldier was actually a human being. This made me have an even greater respect for the two of them.

After all the speakers were finished it came time for promotions. Chief Mendez moved down the line of SPARTANs pining on the ranks and saying a few words to each of the now official soldiers. Eventually he came to stand in front of me. He smiled at me, an almost sad look coming into his eyes as he begins to speak. "SPARTAN zero nine five, Andrew, you came into this program by means of a rather unique series of events," After saying this he paused at the quite muttering that started to come from in the audience. Once they quieted he continued. "Your skill and dedication is admirable and it is with pride that I promote you to the rank of Staff Sergeant.

_What…The…Actual…Fuck… The SPARTANs are a naval asset, Staff Sergeant is a Marine rank…_

"You will be put in charge of an ODST element on the UNSC Dresden." Needless to say I was in shock. _They are assigning me to a different station than the rest of the SPARTANs. _I had grown close with the rest of the SPARANs over the past few months. I would spar with Fred, run with Kelly, and talk leadership things with John. After another sad little smile Mendez moved on down the line.

_Well Shit…_

/Three weeks later/

Well needless to say, the UNSC Dresden was big, well considering the fact it was a Marathon class heavy cruiser I would have been worried if it wasn't. The promotion ceremony earlier in the month had surprised me to say the least. Upon getting into the SPARTAN program I had expected to stay with them for the duration of the human covenant war, assuming I survived that long. Instead it seems as if I will be parading around as the leader of a squad of ODSTs, which will probably go just splendidly considering my last encounter with the Helljumpers…

As I had been thinking to myself I had been moving towards the hanger bay that the ships company of ODSTs were currently hanging out in. My armored boots creating a steady thumping rhythm as I walked down the brightly lit hallway of the ship. I already had my ODST kit on, helmet and all (the helmet is the command variant). I eventually made it to the hanger and was met by the sounds and sounds of a, "friendly" brawl between two troopers. I skirted around the edges of the crowd that had gathered to while listening to the insults that the two fighters were throwing back and forth.

"Your mother is a whore!"

"You're a waste of sperm!"

"If you were a real trooper you would have blocked that!"

"Are you serious man? I already apologized!"

"No Sirius died in the fifth book you fat fuck!"(if you don't get that I feel bad for you).

Eventually I made it through/around the crowd to a trooper that looked like the Units CO. "Staff Sergeant Braun reporting for duty sir!" I said while giving him a quick salute, which he lazily returned.

"Ah so you Jamison's replacement, good luck with that. You squad is over there." He said while he pointed to a group of ODSTs in the corner of the hanger. They looked to be joking around together as they all double checked their gear. _Looks like a tight knit group, this should be interesting._

I thanked the officer and started to make my way over. As I neared they looked up at me, quitting their earlier joking.

"Hey Shiny (because of new armor), what the hell are you doing over here, the new blood is on the other side of the hanger getting an introduction to the rest of the company."

I looked at him realizing that was probably what the "fight" I saw was about. After turning back to face the trooper that spoke I answered his question. "I am over here because as of right now I am taking command of this squad. Staff Sergeant Braun, pleasure to meet you all." After I finished they all exchanged looks and I even saw one start to whisper to another. _Yep, definitely a close group._

"Ah shit…" said the ODST who had first spoken to me. I had to agree with him, his words pretty much described how I felt at the time.

/A few years later/

"ALLRIGHT HELLJUMPERS, HOW DO WE GO?"

"WE GO FEET FIRST STAFF SERGEANT!"

"You damn right we do, OORAH MARINES!"

Just as we finished our normally pre battle ritual the docking clamps holding our HEV pods in their tubes let go. Down we went rushing towards the planet surface below.

"YIPPI-KAI-YAY MOTHER FUCKERS!" came the voice of Lance Corporal Mark Campbell over the coms.

"Campbell I swear to God if you yell any louder my ears are gonna give out!" grumbled Private Joey Rodriguez.

"OI cut the chatter, we are approaching the DZ." The coms went silent as my order went through. After a few more seconds my pod hit the ground followed by the rest of my squad. We were here on this mission by request of some high up ONI civilian resource. After seeing the mission parameters I had a pretty decent Idea of who that would be.

"Spread out and secure the area, the VIP and their people will be here soon," I said to my squad and they quickly moved to comply. Originally when I had started working with them the relationship was rather rocky, now though we all moved with the precision of a well-oiled machine. A few conflicts with the insurrectionists and later the covenant made quite sure of that. Funnily enough after all the time I spent with my squad no one had yet learned of the fact that I was a SPARTAN. I mean a 7'4 guy that weighs a little over 290 pounds, almost all of it muscle, isn't exactly common or normally. I love the guys in my squad, but hell I never said to anyone they were the sharpest tools in the shed…

After a few more minutes of waiting the roar of a pelican could be heard. Soon it came into sight. I walked out into the clearing we were in and popped a blue smoke grenade to signal the landing zone. The pelican touched down with a light thud and the ramp began to lower. After it did the passengers made their way out. I couldn't help but smile as they did, I recognized each and every one of them. Before me stood all of the remaining SPARTAN IIs, (excluding myself of course) and if I was right it was time for the SPARTAN program to take its next big step… The MJOLNER armor system.

"Well, surprise to see you all here," I said while walking thwards the group. A few of them shot me confused looks at this. _Oh yea, forgot im in ODST armor, SPARTANS and ODSTs don't exactly get along after all… _I looked back at my ODSTs, seeing them a bit twitchier than usual. They told me about some story circulating around the ODST community about some other Spec Ops soldiers killing a group of ODSTs in a boxing match. The story had changed some, but it was definitely about the time that John and I had accidentally killed those troopers while recovering from our augmentations.

Looking back at my time with the ODSTs I found it funny that my squad hadn't really learned much about me. They did notice though the occasional loss of control I had while fighting. It had happened a few times but not that often. Thankfully I had never fully lost control of myself. It had only ever been the affects similar to those that I experienced while fighting the ODSTs with John, red tinged vision and an increase in pain tolerance as well as strength.

Anyway after a few awkward moments of the SPARTANs and I staring at each other I thought it was time to my helmet off. When my helmet was finally off I saw a few of the SPARTANs fight to hold back a small look of surprise. After seeing that I looked towards the head of the group. There stood Dr. Halsey, a grouping smile on her face.

"I had a feeling it was you who requested my squad." I said as I surveyed the group before me. "Glad to see I was right."

"Yes, I'm glad that Captain Michaels came through on his promise."

_Wonder what she could have done for the Captain of the Dresden to owe her a favor. _I thought to myself, a slightly questioning look coming across my face.

"Anyway we must really be going, there is a Covenant ship in the system so we are on a strict time frame."

"Right you are." I quickly replied as I slid my helmet back on. "Let's go troopers, diamond formation, I've got point." I shouted to my men as I began to moving towards a navigation marker placed by Halsey. They started following and soon after the SPARTANs fell in behind them.

"This is taking foreeeevvvvvveeeerrrrrrrr…" said one of the troopers in my squad.

"Shut your mouth Rodriguez," I said in reply. The cargo lift we were on was going quite slow, that doesn't mean that complaining about it will make it faster. That doesn't mean that I was enjoying the long elevator ride. I was excited, there was a Covie ship nearby and the SPARTANs, hopefully myself included were about the get their MJOLNER. _Hopefully Halsey has taken some of the advice I gave in that message last year, it would be great if the Mark I started with shields…_

The elevator finally came to a halt. When it did Dr. Halsey walked to the front of our mismatched little group and gestured for us to follow. I couldn't help but let my anticipation grow as we made our way through the complex system of tunnels. Apparently the doctor noticed my excitement.

"Please Andrew, I know you are exited but try to restrain yourself from jumping around so much."

"Uh… yea, sorry just a little bit exited," I replied a bit sheepishly. She just looked at me, an amused look on her face as she continued on walking.

Eventually we arrived at our destination. A vast hanger like room spread out before us. In the middle of the room were a bunch of pedestals surrounded by machinery and other equipment. On top of the pedestals, stood the MJOLNER. It wasn't just the regular MK I from Halo Combat Evolved. There were different variations, all in different colors with various specialized components. All expect one. _ That one is obviously Johns, he has always been a relatively simple guy._

"Now," began Halsey. "I was originally going to ask for a volunteer to go first… there happens to be a certain individual," she shot me a quick look at that. "Who I suspect would like to start a bit more than the others." She then gestured for me to come to the head of the group.

"Hold this," I quickly said as I roughly shoved my rifle into Campbell's hands before rushing to Halsey. Once I stood beside her she pointed out a stand, off to the right side of the display of armor sets. On it sat what was presumably my armor. The most surprising part about this whole thing, the armor was WAY more advanced than it was at this time in the books. _Probably my fault considering all the stuff I told Halsey in those messages._ I mean this stuff looked like the SPARTAN III armor from Halo Reach. _THIS IS SOOOOOOO COOL. Wait, calm down, calm, the fuck down._ Anyway on to the looks of the armor itself. The helmet was the UA/HUL variant of the Recon Helmet. The left shoulder was A CQC shoulder, not surprising considering that's my specialty, and the right an ODST model, it even had the Helljumpers emblem on it. The chest was a UA/MULTI THREAT. Knees were the FJ/PARA and there was a tactical soft case on the right leg.

In any case I was ready to armor up, the Covies won't know what hit them.

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REVIEW PLS LONGEST UPDATE YET :P


	11. Chapter 11

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 11

YAY another chapter! So, I was wondering, would anyone be interested for creating cover art for this story? I would do it myself but I have a huge lack of time, and the only thing I could probably do would be a vector drawing… So, if anyone is wanting to do so, let me know! Also I appreciate all the support I have gotten from you guys, this being my first fanfiction and all. So anyways, into the chapter, I felt sorta like it was lacking, but I was wanting to get to the Mass Effect bits :P, so in the end I may have rushed… just a bit… maybe a lot. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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Getting into the armor for the first time was one of the coolest experiences in my life. All the techs were moving around me as they fit on the various pieces of the MJOLNAR. Then when everything was finally on and connected the suit's gel layer pressurized. Once it had done that the suit had gone from a loose fitting hunk of metal to an armored carapace that felt no different than standard ODST armor, maybe even a bit better. After going through a few systems checks however the armor came to life. I felt the weight of the armor seem to disappear as the enhanced movement systems came online, there was a low buzz as the shields charged, and the heads up display came to life.

"Ma'am, you have really outdone yourself this time," I said as I slowly began to flex my hands, watching how the suit reacted. It was perfect. I mean my actions seemed a little fast, but it's not anything that I couldn't get used to. It was just, well different.

"Yes well I'm glad you appreciate my efforts. When you become comfortable with the basic movements go for a run on the obstacle course. Once you have done that bring you ODSTs and come check in with me, I have another little gift for you all."

_Ah hell yes, I like the sound of that._ After a few more moments I made my over to the obstacle course she had pointed out.

"You ready?" Asked a technician who was going to be timing me. I looked at everyone else in the room as they prepared to watch my performance. I nodded at the tech. "Alright, three, two , one, GO!". I was gone before he had finished saying go. Running through the course in the armor was an almost freeing sensation. There was just a simple goal, to get through as fast as I could. The MJOLNER acted as if it was an extension of me as I vaulted over walls, crawled under razor wire and completed various other activities while going through the course. Eventually as I neared the end I miscalculated my distance from an eight foot cinder block wall that marked the end of the course. As a result of this, instead of going over the wall I was going to hit it… _HOLY SHIT!_ My thoughts were quickly followed by a loud crash. In short, it was me V.S. the wall, surprisingly I won and there was a SPARTAN sized whole in the wall.

"Holy shit Sarge! You ok?"

"Am I ok… I feel fuckin great!" After I said this I heard Fred let out a laugh and looked over just in time to see him shaking my head at me, a knowing smile on his face.

After I had finished re-assuring everyone that I was intact I went over with my troopers to see what Halsey's surprise was. When we had finally gotten over to her she gestured to a group of techs who brought over a few backpack looking devices. _Ah hell yes…_ _This is gonna be so much fun._

"Andrew, I have a feeling you know what these are, so let your troopers in on it, and please try not to get to hurt playing with it," After she said this I quickly nodded and snatched a jetpack from one of the tech's hands.

/A few minutes later/

After a few moments of messing around I had figured out how the damn thing worked. I was now in the middle of teaching the ODSTs how to use them.

"So your saying that basically I just blink at my HUD a couple of times and it activates or de-activates?" asked Campbell.

"That's pretty much the basics, yea… Just please be careful," I responded.

"You worry too much Sarge." Not two seconds after he said that his pack activated and launched him straight up… and right into the re-enforced ceiling.

_Sometimes I feel like a fucking babysitter…_

"What a clusterfuck," stated Rodriguez as we took off in the pelican (the one that the SPARTANs and Halsey had arrived on). I silently agreed, almost as soon as the last of the SPARTANs were armored up we had gotten news that we had to get back to orbit, the Covenant were moving in and we needed to get the fuck out.

This also happened to mean that the SPARTANs (me included) would have to go EVA to go take out the Covie ship that had been hit earlier (This is a series of events from "Halo, The Fall of Reach"). This also means that unless I did something Sam, one of the SPARTANs, who will (Probably) make it on, will die… At least unless I do something about it.

Once we exited the planet's atmosphere John told us the plan, thruster packs to get us across the ship, then we use the missiles stored in the Pelican and blow the ship's reactor to kingdom come. Well that's the cliff notes version anyway. When John gave us the word the other SPARTANS and I jumped into action preparing everything for our slightly (ok very) unorthodox attack.

Before I knew it John had given the order to commence our little plan. As soon as I heard the command I was out the door and into the vacuum of space. _We are all gonna die… well maybe not, but it sure as hell feels like it. _The quick journey felt like a lifetime as we used EVA packs to fly towards the Covenant ship. Eventually we neared the giant purple ship. The ship's plasma weapons had started charging, readying to fire at the UNSC frigate that was our way back to Reach. Right went the turrets fired their shields went down for a split second. That short amount of time though, was just enough for us to enter the ship through a whole created by earlier by the frigates MAC cannon.

It wasn't long before we were inside the pressurized atmosphere of the ship. Surprisingly John had me take point as we moved through the dimly lit purple hallways. Eventually we reached what we believed to be the reactor room. The other SPARTANs (John, Kelly, and Sam) that had made it onto the ship stack up on the door. After placing a C12 breaching charge on the door I readied my shotgun. I was to be the point man after all.

"Alright, blowing the door in three, two, one." A dull roar filled the hallway as my helmet deadened the noise of the explosion. Before the smoke had even cleared as I was through the door.

(John's P.O.V.)

As soon as the door blew 095 was through the door, his shotgun raised.

"DIE MOTHERFUCKERS!" his yelling was quickly followed by the bang of his shotgun and the inhuman screaming of a jackal and a few grunts.

"Well he hasn't changed a bit," remarked Sam dryly as he moved through the door way. _That he hasn't… _I thought to myself as Kelly and I moved through the doorway. Andrew was still a perfect representation of his younger self. _I just hope he keeps his anger in check, Halsey has shown me the footage from when things have gotten bad in the past._ Sam went through to the door to what we believed was the main core. Suddenly when he was almost through the sharp zapping noise of a charged plasma pistol went off. Before Sam, Kelly or I could react however Andrew had pulled him back out of the way of the projectile before charging through the door with a yell, tossing two already primed frags as he went. _It's almost as if he knew that would happen. _I thought as in awe as I moved through the door. Before me sat the bodies of at least two full squads of covenant. To say that they had been ah… eliminated, would have been an understatement. An arm over here and a leg over there… Well at least it was clear that it was the grenades that caused most of it.

(My P.O.V.)

"Can we hurry up please?" I said while John, Sam, and Kelly all surveyed the carnage caused by my… ah, dramatic entrance to the reactor core room. "I mean in all for enjoying the scenery, but there are more often than not there are a couple hundred angry aliens moving towards us right now."

"Right, everyone set the timers for twenty seconds," said John. "We don't want to be here when this thing goes up." We all acknowledged his orders and quickly moved to comply.

"Ok boss, charges are set" I said after placing our improvised explosives around the main reactor core (well whatever it was it looked important). "They are set for both timed and remote detonation, we need to get moving."

"Good job, now let's get out of here." After John gave the order we all began to move back out the way we came. Surprisingly (and mercifully) we didn't run into anything worse than a grunt on our way back to our 'entrance'. "Alright," John began, "Once the charges go off the shields should go down. When they are, jump out and use the EVA packs to get away before the whole thing gets blown to hell. The pelican will swing by and pick us up, understood?" After everyone applied in the affirmative John motioned for me to ready the detonator. "Whenever you are ready 09."

"Alright then, three… two… one…" I jammed my thumb down on the button of the detonator and then felt a slight shudder in the ship's deck plating. "Shields should be down now," I said as the hallway's main lights went out.

"Okay then SPARTANs, let's get out of here."

"Right behind you sir," I said as we all jumped out into the blank void of space as the Covenant ship exploded behind us as we slowly drifted away(cool guys don't look at explosions)…"Well that was fun."

"095, you and I have completely different definitions of fun," said Sam over the coms.

"Meh, I kill aliens for a living… you can't expect me to be completely normal."

/A few months later/

(My P.O.V.)

Well a lot has changed since I had first seen the SPARTANs again (when we all got our armor). Since the multitude of things had happened. The first one, I had ah… modified my armor a bit. The lights on the various pieces of the armor itself now emitted a murky red color. The armor itself was now a dark gray/black with Maroon highlights. I had also added various hard points on the armor that I could use to attach various items to my armor. My favorite thing to do was to add some titanium A plates that I had… Uh borrowed, to act as supplemental armor. When all of the various plates were attached (don't worry I painted them to fit my armor's colors) to the armor I essential yaws a walking tank when going against anti-personnel weapons. In layman's terms, it was a Juggernaut suit (well relatively when compared to my normally armor). Other than my armor I was still sticking with my 'Reach era' MA37 assault rifle, my M45 tactical shotgun, and my trusty M6G Magnum.

In other news, the battle for Reach had begun… My squad and I had originally been deployed into New Alexandria to help with civilian evacuation. Eventually through I was separated from my squad. They stayed in New Alexandria while I was deployed with a group of six other Spartans, Noble team… To commemorate my time in this universe so far I had also gotten a tattoo, in my previous life I had say I wouldn't ever get one unless it was for something that was really important to me. Well if the giant fucking UNSC eagle and globe on my back doesn't say anything about what is important to me, I don't know what will.

Oh and last but certainly not least of my more recent ah 'changes' was that my anger issue caused by augmentations finally snapped… I went a bit berserk on a squad of elites at one point, losing complete control of my actions in combat. Halsey heard of my little 'incident' and came up with a solution. A few weeks after the event she paid me a visit and handed me a data chip, and said "Just a bit of guidance, don't worry it will help maximize damage to the enemy," and then walked away with a smile. Turns out the data chip was an AI, an extremely aggressive AI at that. His name was Ares and he was a 'smart' AI. As he explained it to me, his purpose is to make use of my little 'outbursts' by giving slight amounts of guidance through the HUD, as well as doing regular 'Smart AI" stuff. Also did I mention that he sounds like Sovereign from Mass Effect… so cool.

/A few years later/

(My P.O.V.)

I woke up, a quit hiss filling my ears. The last thing I remembered was escaping from Reach on a transport shuttle (a long term one) then getting stuck in the middle of no-where because the Navigator had been hit and unfortunately died after initiating Cole Protocol. So that left me, and all the other passengers of the vessel stranded in space. So we went in to cryo sleep hoping for rescue.

"Sir," began a Marine who I suppose was the one who let me out of cryo. "You are needed back on earth, the Covenant are there and in force, the Chief is there and the Elites are now allied with us but we still need help. The Prophet of Truth and his forces have been looking for something." After this long rant of information he had to take a breath to recover. Before he did however I interrupted him.

"Well then, what the hell are we doing standing here, let's get these people off the transport and head back, we have a war to win."

"Ooh-Rah sir! We will get it done."

_Well shit, seems as if I missed Halo One and Two… Halo Three here I come._

/End of HALO 3/

(My P.O.V.)

"SHIT, FUCK, GODDAMIT JOHN WATCH YOU'RE FUCKIN DRIVING!" I yelled as we careened through the Forerunner installation. The ring, needless to say was falling apart around us.

"IM DOING MY BEST OK!" was his reply as we jumped over a rather large gap in the road while then running over a few flood combat forms. Needless to say the rest of the ride was rather stressful as I sat on the turret mowing down some of the more over aggressive flood. The Arbiter however just sat in the passenger seat, calm as ever. Eventually we saw salvation in the form of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn. The Warthog lurched as we left the ramp to the Dawn. Landing in the hanger bay with a crash we all jumped to get out of the Hog, and made our way towards the exit of the hanger, one of us however had to shut the bay door. _I am not letting John play the here and then be stuck here until Halo Four. _I motioned for him to go on as I went to the terminal to shut the door. The door shut as the Dawn started to make the infamous slipspace jump at the end of Halo Three.

"Well fuck…" I said to myself realizing what the hell I had just done. (Bold is gonna be Ares voice) **Rather accurately put if I do say so myself….** "Yup." After taking a moment for the gravity of the situation to set in I began moving towards where the cryo bay was. Once there I took out Ares data chip and put it in the console. "Ares, wake me if someone is trying to kill us, I wanna get a good night's sleep for once." **Whatever you say…** I stepped into the cryo pod and gave a long sigh as the capsule closed and began to cool. _What a crazy life I have, in my old life I never would have done any of this shit beyond the games… now I can say that I have basically done it all. A feeling of belonging, a feeling of importance…_

(Bridge of the SSV Normandy)

"Hey uh Captain Anderson?"

"What is it Joker?"

"You might want to take a look at this…"

"… What in the name of God…"

"My thoughts exactly."

**BEGINNING OF MASS EFFECT ARC!**

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Thank you so much for reading! I would really appreciate reviews on this one because I put quite a bit of effort into it! Feel free to msg me with any questions you may have as well. Also as a side note, if there is someone that would be willing to sometimes pre-read what I'm going to upload and give me feedback, and is willing for me to bounce ideas off of them let me know! I will leave you all by saying thank you for all the support that you have given me so far in writing A Feeling of Importance, and I hope that you all will enjoy what is to come (I put a lot of effort into this shit :P). Also one final quick thing… Advanced Placement exams are a bitch.


	12. Chapter 12

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 12

Can you believe this?! Two chapters within roughly 24 hours! Guess who was writing while watching crash course US history to study for APUSH… Anyways please let me know what you think. Also a rather important thing of note, in my version of the Mass Effect universe the Halo series of games exist! There is one key difference though SPARTAN 095 (in other words, me/SI) is in the series. He was introduced in Halo three, and also made a few appearances in Halo Reach. I'm telling you all this, because it is important for this and probably later chapters. I'm still looking for someone to make a bit of cover art for this fanfic, if you know anyone, let them know (I need someone to do it for free :P don't have a surplus of time or money right now).

(Bridge of the SSV Normandy)

"Hey uh Captain Anderson?"

"What is it Joker?"

"You might want to take a look at this…"

"… What in the name of God…"

"My thoughts exactly. Orders sir?" Joker asked.

"Record the nav co-ordinates, we will stop back here after we complete the mission." Replied Captain Anderson.

"Aye, Aye sir, nav data recorded and we are back on our way." After a few moments pause Joker voiced the question that was currently plaguing the two of them. "What do you think could have caused that much damage to the ship?"

"I don't know Joker, and I sure as hell don't plan on finding out any time soon…"

"Also, who could have built that thing?" Joker continued." I mean that thing was at least twice the size of the Normandy, and that wasn't even the whole ship."

"Yet another thing to find out when we return…"

/A few hours later/

(Shepard's P.O.V)

Today was definitely not going well, first of all it was that ass of a turian spectra, and then it was being kept in the dark about the mission. To make matters even worse they lost Jenkins. Shepard's current cause of frustration however were the geth. _It's not like they are putting up that much of a fight, but they sure as hell are annoying._

I was brought out of my thoughts however when they reached the research camp on Eden Prime while looking for the Prothean beacon.

"What the hell!" exclaimed Ashley Williams, an Alliance marine they had picked up earlier. I couldn't help but agree as we saw the once human corpses ahead of us pull themselves off of the spikes that the geth had previously been impaled them on.

"Oh this can't be good," said Alenko just before the husks rushed at us.

_This just isn't my fucking day is it?_

/After the Eden Prime mission/

(Shepard's P.O.V.)

_Damn, what a headache. _I thought while sitting up. Opening my eyes I saw that I was in the med bay back on the Normandy. There was the sound of the med bay's doors opening as Captain Anderson, Doctor Chakwas, and Alenko walked in.

"Commander, I see you are up. How are you feeling?" Asked Chakwas as she came to stand next to the medical table I was sitting on.

"Fine, just a bit of a headache." Once Chakwas was sure that I wouldn't fall over any second, Anderson and Alenko proceeded to try to get me to remember all the details about the beacon. So I spent the next couple of minutes recounting the fact that yes, Saren was evil, and I saw some pretty fucking scary stuff because of whatever the beacon did. After going over all that Anderson informed me of our little detour before we go back to the Citadel.

"On our way here we found what appeared to be a derelict ship of an unknown type and origin. On our way back to the Citadel we are going to check it out. If you are not feeling up to it I can have Alenko or Williams lead the boarding team."

"No its fine," was my quick response. "I can handle it." I didn't want to be left out, especially on something as interesting as this. "Do you have any more info on the ship?"

"It's big… and something cut it in half, we only saw the aft section of the thing though. Also, it looked to me like it was designed with combat in mind. I saw what looked like point defense system modules and missile bays. Other than that there isn't much else I can tell you." Once Anderson was done speaking Joker's voice came over the ship's PA system.

"Hey Captain, we are approaching the ship's co-ordinates."

"Roger that Joker, when we arrive bring us in to dock with any airlocks you can find, Shepard and the rest of the boarding team will be up momentarily."

"Aye, Aye sir," was Jokers reply before the PA system clicked off.

"Well looks like I better get moving," I said as I stood up and began to make my way to the door.

"I'll see you at the airlock then commander."

(Jokers P.O.V.)

Well needless to say Joker was exited. Not just because of the possible danger that this ship posed, but because of something he had seen on approach to the ship. On the side of the ship's hull was its name, the Forward Unto Dawn. This in and of itself was not a big deal, Joker however happened to have a collection of older video games from his dad when growing up. Some of his favorites in this collection had been the Halo games. Like any other fan of said games he knew what the Forward Unto Dawn was, and if this somehow was the real deal… a certain SPARTAN 095 would be on board. He had been introduced at the beginning of Halo three as one of John 117's friends from training as a SPARTAN. _Please be the real thing!_

(Shepard's P.O.V)

"Okay, we don't know what we are going into here. Be on your toes and check your corners. Let me know if you see anything suspicious don't hesitate to let me know, are we clear?"

"Yes Ma'am," was Alenko and William's quick responses.

"Hey commander?" came Jokers questioning voice from the cockpit.

"Yes?"

"Look out for cryo tech of any kind," he said, a little excitement creeping into his voice.

"Why?" I asked.

"Just a feeling I've got."

"Okay then, I'll keep an eye out for anything like that." He simply nodded in response, a broad grin on his face. After our quick conversation I went back to the airlock and prepared to board the unknown ship. Once everyone had their helmets on and armor sealed I pressed the button to open the airlock to the inside of the dead ship.

"Well this isn't going to be creepy at all…" Stated Williams as we turned on our flashlights on and began to make our way into the dark hallway ahead of us. _Yup not creepy at all._

(Ares P.O.V.)

**Proximity sensor alert… Deck 5… Three possible hostiles, or rescuers. Initiate guide lights to cryo bay. Powering up remaining reactors.**

(The Normandy boarding crew)

The previously dead hallway came to life as the lights flashed on. Alenko jumped in the air in fright while Shepard and Williams scanned the corridor looking for the cause of the sudden change.

"Hey look," said Shepard while pointing to a flashing set of arrows on the floor. "Looks like a guide of some sort, common let's get moving." With that the boarding party was off, moving further into the now only partially disabled ship.

(My P.O.V.)

The familiar hiss of a cryo tank thawing filled my ears as I came back into consciousness. Opening my eyes I saw the silhouettes of what looked like three individuals entering the cryo bay. The ice on the inside of the pod however prevented me from making out any details. So, I waited, it would be better to treat them as if they were hostiles until I found out otherwise… Slowly they drew closer as they scanned/cleared the room. The one of them that seemed to be in charge (judging by the hand gestures and precise movements. _Just a little bit closer…_

Then the moment came, the individual in the middle of the room grew just close enough. With a roar I jumped our through the re-enforced glass of the cryo pod I had been in and tackled them before pulling them up into a headlock and unlocking my M6G from the mount on my thigh moving it to point at their head. "Ares, can I borrow you voice for a second?" I asked over a closed coms channel. We had done this before, like I have said previously Ares's voice sounded a bit like that of Sovereign's from Mass Effect, anyway what we would do is he would run a voice filter over my helmet mic so basically it made me sound scary as fuck (this may have been abused for the purpose of scare a few UNSC marines…). He complied with my request and I switched on my armors speakers.

**"Weapons on the ground or your leader gets it…"** I said, Ares voice echoing through the large cryo bay.

"Holy shit." Said one of them, a female as she slowly bent down to set her rifle on the ground. The other individual in the room looked to have fainted… I guess having a 7'4 monster basically jump out in front of your face was rather scaring… After making sure that I wasn't going to get shot I looked down at the person that I had grabbed, who promptly punched me in the face. This obviously didn't hurt, but damn who in the right mind punches a SPARTAN. This momentary confusion allowed them to slip out of my grasp and pull a side arm out and pointing it at my head, granted this wouldn't hurt me… not that they would know.

"Stand down!" Said the woman. _Wait, that voice sounds familiar… AH SHIT, NOT AGAIN GOD DAMNIT._ It seems that I had somehow managed to switch universes again… It seems now instead of genocidal religious aliens I had to deal with giant extinction obsessed squid robot things… In other words I was now in the universe of Mass Effect. _Fuck my life…_

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As always thank you all for your support! The reason this chapter came out so fast was because of all the positive feedback I got on the last one, and I just felt motivated. In other words more reviews and stuff=faster updates (I can't be held accountable though if this isn't always the case… :P). In other news "A Feeling of Importance" has (at this time) 43 reviews, 37 favorites, 65 followers, and we are only 420 views from **10,000**. SO THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! BTW I HAVE BROKEN 20,000 WORDS :P SO HAPPY!


	13. Chapter 13

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 13

I have been finding a lot more motivation to continue writing it seems. Unfortunately I always get these bouts of motivation late at night when I should be going to bed… Please tell me what you think and leave any questions/suggestions in a review or PM. As a side note **WE BROKE 10,000 views!** There have also been over 50 reviews, these last few days have been quite productive :P. I just realized how many grammar errors were in the last chapter lol, my apologies for that. Other thing worthy of mention… I am typing this instead of studying for exams right now :P. By the way, have you figured out that I really don't like Alenko? Still looking for somone to do a piece of cover art for "A Feeling of Importance"!

League of Legends Summoner name: Drakeal

My Steam ID:[AOD]Lebenden_Toten

One final note, I would urge you guys if you like League of Legends, to go check out Dr. Falter Walter's story "Reborn From Ice". I found myself really enjoying it!

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The individuals standing, or in one's case, laying on the ground (Alenko fainted last chapter) before me were members of the SSV Normandy's ground team. The woman currently pointing the gun at me was none other than Commander Shepard herself… _Ok first of all their guns look like fucking toys… I doubt they could even get through my shield without overheating._

"Ok then," I began my voice still coming through as Ares's (The AI). "Why don't we all just take a deep breath and lower our weapons."

"Easy for you to say considering you currently don't have one." Replied Shepard. After she said that my hand immediately shot to my Magnum, quickly pulling it out of the magnetically locked holster at my side. Before Shepard could even react I had the gun resting against the front of her helmet, close enough that her kinetic barriers would not be able to stop the round. Of course I wasn't actually going to shoot her…

"Well now… this is awkward…"

* * *

(Jokers P.O.V.)

Joker always watched the currently missions progress though the ground team's helmet cams. It made him feel like he was down with the rest of the team, part of the action and not just a pilot. This particular mission was no exception. As a matter of fact Joker was more than a bit exited. He watched as the boarding team slowly made their way through the Forward Unto Dawn. Eventually after the lights flashed on and the floor's guide lights began to blink Joker almost burst from the excitement of watching the team's progress. _Comon Commander, hurry up! This has to be the real deal here!_ Then there it was, the team came around the corner and walked into the cryo bay. _I have to be dreaming there is no way this is happening. _Joker watched Shepard's helmet cam as she walked into the room. As Shepard approached the middle of the room Joker saw a small amount of movement in the middle pod located on the far wall of the room. Right as he was about to warn the Commander the pod exploded as a massive figure jumped out from the inside _HOLY SHIT! _The Commanders video feed flew out of focused as she was bowled over by whatever had come out of the pod. Joker quickly switched to William's Camera and took in the scene that was on screen. Kaiden had fainted and was laying on the ground, and right in front of Williams stood SPARTAN 095 holding Shepard in a headlock. _Ah shit._ Things however quickly changed as Shepard escaped the SPARTAN's grasp and drew her side arm, pointing it at 095's head. _This is sooooo not going to end well… _Thought Joker in despair.

Surprisingly however 095 (still in Ares's voice) proceeded to try and take a more diplomatic route, first trying to convince Shepard to put down the gun, then when she wouldn't drawing his own. _I should probably step in…_

"Hey Shepard?"

"Joker, kind of busy right now!" Shepard said, the tension seeping into her voice.

"No, Shepard you have to listen to him, work with him here."  
"Joker, what the hell do you mean work with him!?" Shepard exclaimed in confusion.

"Commander, I mean that this guy could kill you and everyone on the Normandy without breaking a sweat!"

"Joker what the hell are you talking about? That makes no sense."

"Commander you just have to trust me on this, I'll explain later."

"Joker I swear one of these days you're going to get me killed!"

"Yea yea, kill me later. Shepard this guy is a walking weapon. A walking weapon that I happen to know a hell of a lot about. Just let me come over to the ship and I'll explain everything."

"Joker I sure as hell hope you know what you're doing…"

"Not a problem Commander." _I have no idea what I'm doing…_

* * *

(My P.O.V.)

Shepard seemed to be in the middle of a conversation with someone on her coms as we continued our little standoff. After a couple more tense moments Shepard spoke, this time to me. "You said you wanted weapons down?" After she said this I merely nodded.

"Ok then… one the count of three we both holster our weapons, one, two, three." Once she reached three we both slowly lowered our weapons and set them back in their holstered positions.

"So I'm guessing you want to talk now?" I said my voice still being altered to sound like Ares.

"I have been advised to do so…"

"So what do you want to know?" I asked switching my voice back to my normal tone. When I asked this she paused. _I bet she is contacting Anderson for orders…_

"Just wait a moment, I have my CO and another crew member on their way with questions and answers."

_Ah so I guess the section of the ship we are in has been pressurized. I know who her CO is, that's obviously Anderson, __and I wonder who the other crew member is…_

* * *

(Jokers P.O.V.)

"Joker, would you please slow down. Chawkwas would kill me if you hurt yourself." Said Captain Anderson as they made their way towards the Forward Unto Dawn's cryo bay. They had pressurized this section of the ship after finding that it was capable of holding atmosphere.

"Sir with all due respect, I am about to meet one of my childhood heroes, I can't easily slow down, ESPECIALY since this guy shouldn't even exist!"

"Yes well… Just don't get hurt, and promise to explain this to me again later. This makes absolutely no sense."

* * *

(My P.O.V.)

After waiting for a few minutes I eventually heard foot steps down the hall. _Must be Anderson and the other crew member. _A moment later Shepard confirmed this.

"Well, they are almost here."

"I know," was my curt response. This little situation still had the potential to go bad.

"How do you know?" she questioned.

"I will explain later, as of right now I believe they are here.

Not two seconds after I had said that the door to the cryo bay opened. As soon as it did Joker quickly entered the room. The weirdest par however was what he did next. He imidiatly hobbled across the room towards me (faster than he probably should be moving, you know with him having Vrolick syndrome and all) and hugged me. He then proceded to say something that confused me to no end.

"Holy shit your real! This is so epic!"

_What the actual fuck…_ My confusion was first caused by the fact that he had just hugged me. I mean SPARTANs are not really the most huggable of people… you know what with being all serious, scary, big, well trained… shall I continue? The second thing that confused me even more, was the fact that he, a character, or rather person, from the Mass Effect universe knew who I was…

"Ok…" I said while looking back and forth between Captain Anderson and Shepard, both of which looked just about as confused as I felt. "Can someone please start explaining why this man is hugging me, and secondly who the hell you all are?"

"Well," began Joker. "This is gonna be kind of hard to believe, but don't stop me until I finish," Joker said to both me and his commanding officers. "The gist of it, is that you, SPARTAN 095 are from a video game series that I played as a child." After he finished saying this Shepard and Anderson both looked at each other. I could only imagine the thoughts going through their heads right now but I believe the two were currently connecting Jokers behaviors with a little too much of his meds… Joker than continued, "Now before you tell me I'm crazy I have proof." He then proceeded to bring up a miniature projection from his Omni Tool showing what appeared to be a futuristic version of Youtube. He then proceeded to play the video. I saw myself through what appeared to be the heads up display of another SPARTAN. The helmet cam showed the SPARTAN mowing down Covenant infantry that were attempting to fire on a group of retreating civilians. Then the most surprising thing happened. Another SPARTAN jumped into view firing as he ran towards the enemy positions, the craziest part about this however, was the fact that the SPARTAN on screen… was me.

"Oh you have to be fucking kidding me..."


	14. Chapter 14

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 14

(Quick note, just re-uploaded the chapter to fix a rather stupid error that I made, saying United States instead of United Nations :P)

HA, FUCK SCHOOL! Just finished my final exams and I'm done for the summer, done being a sophomore, done with fucking everything… well except work, let me tell you working at a theme park is great and all but hell its tiring (it's a Cedar Fair park). So I'll go ahead and say that I will try to update more over the summer. Anyway I just wanted to thank you all for all the kind words that you have sent in your reviews and messages, sometimes it's that one really kind thing that someone says that motivates me to put out a new chapter. Also feel free to ask me any questions you may have in a review or pm! A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE IS MAKING COVER ART, HURRAH!

So… um yea I didn't update for a long time, I actually wrote the authors note above like a month ago… well anyways here's the chapter, hope you all enjoy it.

Just to reiterate bold is when Ares (the AI) is speaking

League of Legends Summoner name: Drakeal

My Steam ID:[AOD]Lebenden_Toten

My stream: Lebenden_Toten

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"I think Joker may be losing it" Shepard quietly said to Anderson.

"Guys I'm not crazy ok!" Joker quickly replied having overheard the remark. He then began to argue with Shepard and Anderson trying to prove that he was right about this whole fucked up scenario. While they were arguing I took a seat in the corner of the room on a cargo crate._ This has gone beyond weird, I mean first Halo, which was hard enough to believe… now this. Whoever is making this happen must be laughing their ass off right now. The scary part about the video that Joker just showed is that it looked like a cut scene, the even scarier part is that I remember that exact event on reach, I even have the helmet camera footage of it_. As the argument across the room seemed to reach its peak I finally stood back up and spoke.

"Yea I think we can all agree that this is a bit odd…" I began. "Before we start deciding who is and is not crazy I would like to say that I can prove he is right." After I said this the look on their faces was just priceless.

"Wait what?" said Shepard the confusion evident in her voice.

"I said that your pilot is right, that video he showed, I have mission footage of that exact moment on my helmet."

"Wait, what?!" Shepard replied.

"SEE IM NOT CRAZY!" exclaimed Joker from the background.

"Can we see said footage?" asked Captain Anderson trying to reign in the conversation that was quickly spiraling out of control.

"Yes, I well, Ares, would need something to project it onto…" I replied having a rather worrying realization

"Ah shit," Joker said a look of understanding coming over his face. He was obviously just realizing what I had figured out moments before, Artificial intelligences were illegal by council law, and Ares was an AI, a military AI at that.

"Um who is Ares? Came Shepard's confused voice, interrupting Joker and I's collective 'Oh shit' reaction. "I mean is there another giant in armor on board this hunk of junk?"

Joker looked at me as if asking for permission to explain, I just stared back, after so many years working with the SPARTANS and other spec-ops troops I had become averse to talking with those I didn't personally know well. Even if I knew much about the people currently surrounding me in the cryo bay of the Forward Unto Dawn, I had never actually spoken with them, never mind the fact that I don't know any of Shepard's backstory because of the players ability to create and develop Shepard's life throughout the Mass Effect games. (by this I mean the backstory of Shepard's life and how any events prior to meeting them had gone.) Joker ended up taking my silence as an affirmative and began to explain to those present the current predicament.

"So… Ares is sorta special, the way that the games that I played explained Ares is that he acted as a sort of limiter and guidance tool for SPARTAN 095."

"You still haven't explained what Ares is exactly. Or for that matter, why it is called Ares, because if memory serves Ares was the Greek god of war. In my opinion that doesn't sound like something that would function as a limiter," Shepard interrupted.

"I'm getting to that part." Joker quickly said. "So Ares main function like I said is a limiter, the limiter is needed, because well…" he looked at me basically asking for me to explain. So I did, no one except for myself and the other people closely associated with the SPARTAN program really knew the depth of my post augmentation issues.

"The members of the SPARTAN program, which I'm sure Joker will explain in more detail later on, went through augmentations… Rather extensive augmentations at that. Many of the original SPATAN II candidates didn't make it through the procedure, out of those that did many of us had some side effects from the procedures. I ended up getting some side effects from my augmentations and they are a bit of a double edged sword. I ended up having largely increased adrenaline production among some other side effects that in the end increased my aggression. The downside this is the increased presence of adrenaline and certain other chemicals will occasionally cause me to ah, how to I put this, lose control, sometimes rather spectacularly on the battlefield." It was at this point that Joker quietly interrupted.

"Which is fucking awesome…" after he said this a quick glare his way (the iridescent visor of a SPARTAN's helmet is rather intimidating If applied correctly). After he quieted down I continued.

"The main problem with these moments is that I get angry… very angry. This causes me to go a bit berserk in combat, Ares is to help me identify friend from foe when this happens.

"I still don't understand what has Joker so worried about this 'Ares' system then," Shepard interjected."

Joker than continued the explanation of why Ares presence was going to be such a problem. "Well you see Ares isn't exactly a normal 'program' per-say." Then as Joker continued to dance around the fact that Ares was actually an AI I decided to step in. Muting my armor's external speakers I spoke to Ares.

"Ares, you're following all of this right?"

**"Affirmative, quite an interesting story this is going to make…"**

"Yea, you don't know the half of it, anyway this Joker guy is so concerned about you because in Council space artificial intelligences are illegal because of a rather detrimental mistake that one of the alien races made. The Citadel council is the largest body of organized government in the galaxy, and humanity just so happens to be a part of this 'alliance' of sorts. Yea also AI aren't just illegal they are scared shitless of your kind. Anyway I'm sorta tired of Joker beating around the bush about you actually being an AI, so would you do me a favor and introduce yourself?"  
**"Sure thing boss."**

_I don't want to jinx myself, but can my life get any weirder… _As Shepard Joker and the rest of the Normandy's crew that were currently on board continued arguing amongst themselves Ares silently appeared on the holo platform (the one that Cortana was on in Halo 5) needless to say Ares appearance was frightening to say the least. When he was first given to me by Dr. Halsey back in the day, he had yet to choose a hologram representation so, with my help we ended up finding something… suitable to his personality. Thinking back to my original reality I remembered a series of games called the elder scrolls, in these games there were these gods called Daedra. Out of all the one that I remember of being the most fitting to Ares was that of Molag Bal, the Daedric reaper of souls and the holder of many other titles. (Look up the elder scrolls online version of him, it's the best I could find). Ares in the end found this image to be quite agreeable and took its form, the only exception was that his entire hologram was a dark blood red. Not moments after his form took shape on the holoprojector than he addressed the rest of the room's occupants.

**"095 got a bit tired of us beating around the whole issue of who I am so I'm just going to introduce myself now. I am Ares United Nations Space Command AI serial 037M-2C. I have been paired with 095 to maximize his combat efficiency and also act as a guide so that when his condition comes into effect he doesn't tear his comrades apart. Before you ask, I am not a preventive measure, my pairing with 095 started after he lost control in a firefight and wiped out an enemy force of around twenty, and then proceeded to kill the small group of UNSC marines that were with him. Anything else you need to know?"** The second he had started speaking everyone in the room (minus myself obviously) had jumped back and stared at him as he introduced himself. Once he went into more depth about what had happened to necessitate my paring with him everyone sans Joker slowly began to discreetly raise their weapons.

"You have an AI," Shepard began. "AI are illegal in council space, and I don't even want to think about how advanced this one appears to be… This is not even mentioning the fact that the AI is there more for the safety of others."

"Yes I am aware of these facts," I replied. "Here's the thing though, I need transportation, because for obvious reason this hunk of junk is going anywhere. Your organization could obviously use another military asset and I Just so happen to have spent around half of my life fighting aliens, which seem to be in abundance in this universe. My I also have access to technologies that would make many of yours look like something that children had thrown together.

"Commander I would believe him… like some of the things that his military has are, well scary to say the least," Joker said quickly interjected.

"Well first of all, it's not my decision, remember that Captain Anderson is the ranking officer on the Normandy?" Shepard replied.

"Oh… forgot about that, sorry Captain, "Joker said while glancing back over towards Anderson.

"It's fine Joker, and as for you, we obviously won't leave you stranded out here in space

"That won't be a problem, so what first," I replied, his request seemed reasonable enough to me.

"Tech, everything else can be discussed later."

"Ok then, off to the armory we go, it's just down the hall so it should be pressurized" I said as I began to exit the room grabbing Ares data chip and plugging it into my neural interface. Right after I did this I heard everyone that had begun to follow me stop.

"Did you just plug the AI into your head?!" Shepard demanded from behind me.

"Yes, can we move beyond the fact that I have an AI now?"

"Uh yea sure, just sorta took me by surprise."

After the whole plugging AI into head thing we resumed on our way towards one of the surviving armories on the Forward unto dawn. Thankfully this one was where most of my gear (Was stationed on the Dawn during most of the battle for earth in Halo 3) was located. As we entered the room I heard a gasp from behind me, I don't blame whoever it was, the armory was a rather impressive sight, even if some of the items were strewn across the floor because of the prior lack of gravity. "Right, so this is one of the ships armories," I said as I made my way towards one of the more secure looking lockers off to the side. Behind me I could hear the various members of the Normandy crew moving around and looking at the various firearms and such.

"You said your tech was advanced, this looks like ancient stuff, your even using actual lead ammunition, nothing mass effect related," Ashley said sounding unimpressed (remember Kaiden and Ashley originally boarded with Shepard).

"Oh you'd be surprised what those will do, they may look old but let me tell you, they pack one hell of a punch" I distractedly replied as I opened up the locker that I had moved to, it was my personal locker on the ship which oddly enough was in the armory. This however doesn't mean it is a small one though, the locker was large enough to contain all of the supplemental armor plates that I had made for my armor as well as my chosen load out for most combat situations, there was also a M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, in layman's terms a Spartan laser… cause you know I'm a SPARTAN.

"No, I seriously doubt that anything in this armory could stand up to modern day military tech," Ashley continued, obviously not believing what I had said." In the background I could hear Joker giggling madly as he sifted through the various lockers of weaponry, never mind the fact that if he fired one of them he would probably break a bone considering his condition. _ Actually, with some of the data on the methods used to strengthen bones in the SPARTAN project I may be able to help him out, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself._

"You see that's where you are wrong, I used these very guns to fight against a coalition of aliens species in possession of tech so advanced that it would make the combined achievements of all of your 'Citadel Council races' look like a kids science kit. These things included developments such as plasma weaponry, pulse lasers, man portable and ship bourn energy shielding and so on."

"Ok... but we haven't exactly seen any proof of that yet have we?"

"You're looking at the proof," I said as I turned to face her."

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Thank you all for reading, and thanks to those of you that stuck with the story!

Please review or msg me, I enjoy talking with you all, and maybe check out my twitch to see if I'm streaming sometime :P


	15. Chapter 15

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 15

Welp, I just deleted some of the chapter on accident… which means I have to go through and type everything I had again… FML

Anyway sorry for taking so long to update yet again, I have been having a rough time over the summer with work and all of the usual summer things. The most writing time I have had has probably been on the train wreck of a family vacation that I am currently on. Honestly I thought vacations were supposed to be relaxing and good for family relations…. Not make me hate everyone and everything around me… I digress.

Anyways before going on the story I would like to mention that probably within the next couple days (sevenish) unless something goes hilariously wrong (in a bad way) I am going to be uploading some Helmet camera footage of me playing airsoft with a couple buddies in Tennessee. This is most likely going up on my old (also dead) YouTube account which I will have below.

Old Dead YouTube account-gonekrazy6gaming

On to the story then!

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"Ok… but we haven't exactly seen any proof of that yet have we?"

"You're looking at the proof," I said as I turned to face her.

"I have used basically every weapon in this armory against an alliance of religiously fanatic aliens, and I can assure you these things pack a punch. They may not look like much but they pack one hell of a punch, you'll see."

"Whatever."

"Well if you done insulting my tools of the trade, would you kindly help me load this thing up?" I said while pointing to a robotic cargo platform. Everyone soon started help and we gradually transferred many of the undamaged weapons and munitions to the platform.

-Add Line Break-

After we finally got everything sorted out on the armory we made our way back to where I assumed the Normandy had docked with the remains of the Dawn. On the way back I suddenly remembered something, one of the Dawn's hanger bays had survived… and I remember there being a few vehicles left inside. Most notable of those being a Scorpion and a few warthogs. Ares do me a favor and open up a private channel to Shepard."

**"Done"**

"Shepard, I just remembered something that could be of use."

"And that would be?"

"There is possibly a working tank… and all terrain jeep in the remaining hanger bay on the ship."

"How did you forget a tank!?"

"… That's not the point. Do you think that your cargo bay has enough space to house these?"

"Depends on how big they are, but I'm guessing that they would. I'll see what we can do once we are on the ship" I simply nodded in response and we were back on our way again. After another couple of minutes of walking in silence we reached the airlock doors to the Normandy. Shepard then led the way into the airlock decontamination chamber. We all piled in and stood at an awkward silence as the room went through the decontamination procedures. An electronic beep signaled the end of the procedures and the doors opened.

"Ok," began Shepard. "Normally I would give you the grand tour of the ship myself, but I have some things that I need to take care of before we get to the citadel. Don't worry I'll take care of the thing you mentioned to me on the way back. So because I can't do it myself I'm going to have," before she could finish however Joker interrupted.

"I'll do it!"

"Ok, but who will fly the ship?"

"Eh let Alenko do it, he has had some cross training right?"

"Fine, just remember to get the weapons we recovered secure first," she said while gesturing at the robotic cargo platform that was carrying all the gear from the armory.

"No problem boss," Joker said as he began to walk away. _Guess I should follow him_. As we began to walk away Joker in the lead, Shepard interrupted one last time.

"Almost forgot, if you are going to be on the ship our medical officer Dr. Chawkwas will need to have a look at you to see what kind of shape you are in.

"That won't be a problem I said as Joker and I once again resumed our Journey to the Armory to drop off most of the gear we had recovered from the Dawn.

-Add Line Break-

"This is the slowest fucking elevator that I have ever had the displeasure of being on…"

*DING*

"Thank fuck, let's go!"

-Add Line Break-

"Well here is the armory." Joker said.

"This is it?" was my more than skeptical reply. Compared to the armory on any UNSC ship this thing looks like it would have belonged on a dropship…

"Yeup, sorry it's probably a bit underwhelming. Typically the only people carrying anything larger than a hand gun are the ground team members." Joker explained. "Well anyway, you can put your stuff in the locker over there." He said while pointing to a large storage locker in the back corner of the small room.

-Add Line Break-

"Ok, well now we have to go pay Chawkwas a visit," Joker said as the elevator started to move.

"Yea, come to think of it you may want to go back to your duties once we get to the medical bay. I have a feeling that this exam will take quite a while." Explaining augmentations to Chawkwas was going to be a bit of a bitch.

"Ah, I guess you're right, ok then I'll be getting back to flying the ship then. Ask Chawkwas if you need help finding anything else on the ship. Medical bay is right around the corner, see you later!

"Nice to meet you Joker."

"Likewise!"

After Joker finally walked away I turned around the corner and approached the medical bay. _Well, here goes nothing…_

-Line Break-

"Well then, Shepard said you were big, but she definitely could have expanded upon her description of you… I mean you are bigger than some Krogan!" said a voice as soon as I walked into the room. Looking to my left I saw the owner of said voice, Dr. Chawkwas.

"What do you need me to do?" I wasn't all that fond of medical examinations and would prefer to get this done as fast as possible.

"Well first I have to get a basic scan of you to check for any major issues then I will need to look you over myself to check for anything the scanner may miss." After a brief pause I nodded and began to remove to outer carapace of my armor. Normally this process would take two or more tech personnel about a half of an hour to remove the various components of the Mjolnir. Over the years however I had made some small modifications that with a little bit of practice allowed one person to remove it in the same amount of time. With help however the process would take only half of that amount of time. About five minutes in I realized that the faster I get the armor off the faster I can get out of the med bay.

"Excuse me doctor but would you mind calling down an extra set of hands, this would go exponentially faster if I had more help."

"Of course, I'll ask Shepard if she will send someone down." After saying that she brought up her Omni-tool and proceeded to "call" Shepard. _Least I think that is how it works… _"Shepard, I was wondering if you could spare anyone to help our guest with removing their armor, it seems like it is quite complex and would otherwise take quite a while." After a brief pause in which Shepard was probably responding Chawkwas continued. "Thank you Commander I will see you in a minute then." After finishing the conversation she looked back at me. "The commander isn't currently doing anything herself, so she will come down and assist, also said that it would be a good opportunity for you to fill her in on your combat experience."

After hearing this Ares began to speak with me over private comms **"So obviously telling her that you have fought for about half of your life against aliens doesn't count for shit."**

"Apparently, I'm not going to hold it against her though."

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Thank you all for reading, and thanks to those of you that stuck with the story!

Please review or msg me, I enjoy talking with you all, and maybe check out my twitch to see if I'm streaming sometime :P


	16. Chapter 16

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 16

Hey everyone, I got an update out! I spent a while on this chapter so I would appreciate your feedback. I do realize however it wasn't the longest update :P. One major thing of note is that I have unfortunately for me started school again, today being my first day. Good news for you guys though, because I will now be able to work on the story more, funny how that works… Also remember to add me on LOL or Steam, info is in my bio.

**Important Note, there is a sneak peak of something new that I might be working on at the end of the chapter after the closing authors note! :P**

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"So what was it you needed help with?" came Shepard's voice as she walked through the door.

"Need some help with removing the outer carapace of my armor," I quickly replied while continuing to remove the seemingly endless amount of components on the Mjolnir system.

"How exactly would I go about doing that?" she said while looking at the armor. "It's the first time I have seen anything like this."

"Here, use his," I said while handing her a small tool from a compartment built into the side of my armor. "The armor for the most part is bolted together in key areas over the undersuit. Some of it is just magnetically attached though, I'll get any that are like that." I explained while continued to remove the armor piece by piece. "Oh, almost forgot, let me get the bigger parts, this thing weighs more than it looks like." After saying that I looked up to see Shepard with a rather annoyed look on her face.

"You think I can't handle a little bit of weight?" she said defensively, I guess I had offended her.

"No, what I'm saying is that the armor weighs in at over half a ton…"

"Oh, sorry… I'm assuming that it has some kind of weight distribution system the?"

"Correct." After that little incident was out of the way we working in silence removing piece by piece of the armors outer layer, all the while Chawkwas silently watched us while taking notes. What the notes were on, I had no idea. Eventually the only remaining piece of the armor on my person was my helmet.

"So… are you going to take the helmet off?" asked Shepard. In answer to her question I simply stared back at her. I like remaining inside my armor and like most other Spartans preferred to only show our faces around those we were close with. It's not to say that I didn't like Shepard and Chawkwas, but it just felt wrong to take it off in front of people that I had only met in person for the first time. After a moments silence Shepard then continued, even if it was a little awkwardly. "Well… ok then ill com speak with you later I guess." With that she walked out of the room, the med bay doors swishing shut behind her.

"You do realize you will have to take it off for the medical examination right?" Came Chawkwas amused voice from behind me.

"Dammit."

-Line Break-

"Well to sum everything up, this has been the most interesting medical examination I think I have ever done…" began Chawkwas. "Strengthened bones, abnormally high muscle density, higher cognitive abilities, superhuman reactions, and a host of other changes that should be impossible by modern medical Standards. To top it all off many of the scars that you have suggest you have endured numerous injuries should have been fatal in most cases. And I'm not even mentioning all of the evidence of countless surgeries….

"Yeah, about that," I began, this was going to be 'fun' to explain. "I am the peak of Human medical and military achievement in my universe. I'm a part of the project named SPARTAN, I myself am a member of the second itineration of this program. Children were screened for genetic compatibility around the ages of six through seven and then if they were compatible with planned changes to their DNA and had adequate reaction times they were abducted by members of ONI, the intelligence branch of the United Nations Space Command and replaced with short lived clones of their previous selves. Soon after their abductions the newly conscripted children were put through training and education with the end goal of creating the ultimate soldier. Once the SPARTAN cadets were around sixteen and seventeen years of age they went under the augmentations procedure."

"Before I continue however I would like to mention one thing. I didn't enter the program until augmentations because… well, different conditions of my arrival. Anyway the augmentation procedure was meant to enhance us to the point of making the SPARTANs living weapons, many of the changes were things that you noticed like the strengthened bones, greatly increased muscle density, and higher cognitive abilities. Unfortunately the augmentations were the cause of the first large amount of casualties in the program, the augmentations also had rather severe side effects in some cases. That's basically the barebones description of everything that we underwent, I'll send you some more medical documentation about the program if I end up sticking around and you need it.

"Well basically everything you just described is against the laws of the Citadel Council, but I'm sure the Alliance will think up some story to cover you changes with. Thank you for sharing all of this with me. I may have some more questions for you later, but as of now you have a rather severe case of freezer burn, Shepard told me they found you in a cryo pod so I'm guessing that would be the cause. I'm going to give you some painkillers for that, but before I finish up is there anything else you would like to mention?"

_I don't really want to talk about it… but yes._

"Yes, I mentioned the augmentations sometimes had side effects. I just so happen to have a rather unique one… I have an increased adrenaline output when I'm put into stressful circumstances such as rather heavy combat, this isn't to say that it makes me combat ineffective, its actually the opposite… it's just that there tends to be a bit more collateral damage."

"Can you give any examples of this?" she asked a bit hesitantly."

"I can do you one better, I have video of a few such events on my helmet. Just a warning though… it isn't for the faint of heart, or those who are easily affected by rather gratuitous violence…"

_I guess there isn't any point in hiding anything from her as of yet…_

Once she got the video she promptly opened it and began to watch. Throughout the course of the recording she began to look rather shocked, well she also looked a bit sick as well, but who wouldn't. The video showed me in one of my 'moments'. In said instance I just so happened to be tearing various Covenant species limb from limb in close combat, there were also a few point blank instances of buckshot to the face, for dumb creatures Brutes sure tend to have quite a bit of brain matter…

"Well you certainly were not exaggerating about the video content… You are able to control this to the extent that it is not dangerous to comrades."

"Correct."

"Okay, well it's definitely an issue but if it is controllable you are good to go."

"Are we finished here?"

"Yes you can go now, the commander says she is sorry about this but there isn't exactly space for you in the crew quarters or the sleeper pods because of your size, but she did have some crewmen set up a small area with a cot down in the cargo area."

"Ah thank you for the heads up. How exactly would I get to said cargo area? I said as I began to fit my armor back on (this process went a lot faster than taking it off because of automated locking systems in the armor.)"

"Just take the cargo lift down, it is the lowest level, also I almost forgot to mention, there is some additional things from your ship down in the hold as well."

"Alright thank you for the time doctor."

After a few more minutes I finally got all of my armor back on and headed out of the med bay towards the cargo lift.

_Man I have got to either get used to talking more or just go back to barely doing so… I think I'm losing my voice now._

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Thank you all for reading, and thanks to those of you that stuck with the story!

Please review or msg me, I enjoy talking with you all, and maybe check out my twitch to see if I'm streaming sometime :P

**START OF EXTRA BIT BELOW**

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Lebenden_Toten

Unexpected Aid

Chapter 1(Preview Version Not Complete)-A series of events

**SKYRIM/INHERITANCE CYCLE KNOWLEDGE RECOMMENED**

No one had expected the Dragonborn to be an Argonian. It was suspected that it would be a member of one of the more 'civilized' races such as the Nords or Imperials, maybe even an Elf, but never an Argonian. At first many were skeptical, it did not take long for them to realize though that this Argonian, the Dragonborn, was worthy of Akatosh's blessing. The Dovihkiin had then gone on to earn almost every acclaimed title in the providence of Skyrim. This extensive list of titles went from being the Thane for the various larger cities of Skyrim and went on to include such titles as the Harbinger of the Companions (not to mention werewolf at that), the Arch Mage of the collage of Winterhold, The listener of the Dark brotherhood, head of the Thieves guild and a prominent member of the Stormcloak Rebellion. That isn't to say that he was proud of many of these, most of them just happened on accident or overtime, adventure seemed to follow the Dovikiin where ever he went. The whole time he went about adventuring he had one overall goal in mind. To fulfill his destiny and defeat the World Eater, Alduin. With time he did just that. However the World Eaters death was just the next step in an adventure of such proportions that if the full story were ever told it would be elevated to a place above that of Tiber Septim himself.

The name of Drakeal, the last Dragonborn would ring out throughout the mead halls of Skyrim for a long time to come.

-Line Break-

Alduin the World Eater fell to the ground with one last earth shaking roar. His scales burned began to burn away as the Heroes of Sovngarde rejoiced. Beside them stood Drakeal, clad in his custom set of Ebony armor (it was created to look more like the Nordic armor, if you don't know what It looks like look it up than imagine more armored and black :P). He watched as Alduin's scales began to burn away revealing the massive bones beneath, and he simply stood as the Eldest Dragons soul was absorbed into him. Not a moment after it finished a small grin spread across his scaled face, he had done it, the lowly Argonian warrior from Black Marsh had defeated the World Eater. He began to slowly walk away towards the grand mead hall, but on his way he took one last look back at the corpse of Alduin. And what he saw shocked him to his core. A brilliant white Oval shaped object, sparkling in the ethereal glow of Sovrengarde's moonlit sky. He immediately turned an made his way back to pick up the object, as soon as he did a burning pain spread throughout his left palm, there on his hand burned in by whatever magic the stone possessed was the shape of a spiraling e (that's the best way I could describe it sorry, it's the riders symbol I'm too lazy to look up the actual name right now). Not a moment after he looked up from the rock a bright flash occurred in front of him, the opening of a portal of some sort. Out of said portal stepped the mad Deadric god, Sheograth himself.

"Oh for fucks sake."

"Hello my friend, long time no see!" said the mad god.

"We met about two weeks ago…"

"Well anyway congratulations on slaying the World Eater! As a reward, myself and the other Deadric gods have decided to send you on a vacation!"

"I'm fucked." Drakeal said, a look of resignation crossing his face. Sheograth seemingly not noticing Drakeal's despairing remark continued.

"Also that thing in your hand, that's a Dragon egg, and you are to be its rider! So have fun with that!"

"Why does shit like this always happen to me!?"

"Well anyway I hope you enjoy Alagaesia!" With a flash Both Sheograth and the Dragon born disappeared from the land.

-Line Break-

Du Weldenvarden rang out with the songs and sounds of the Blood-Oath festival. Celebration was in the air after seeing the miracle performed by the festival's ancient magic, miraculously healing and changing Eragon in ways that were never deemed possible before that day. The elves sang and danced in the main clearing at the center of Ellesmera. All of this came to a halt however as a bright white light lit the sky and from said light a figure, different from any individual in Alagaesia, fell, a large white stone clutched in his hands.

_**The Dragonborn has arrived**_

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Again I would like to thank you all for reading, I look forward to hearing what you think of chapter 16 of "A Feeling of Importance". Also I would Love it if you all took the time to send me a PM or leave a review with your thoughts about my next/other project that I'm going to be working on. I feel like it is an idea with great potential and would like to see it through, most importantly I would like you all along with me for the ride as I begin to write another story (I'm not stopping work on "A Feeling of Importance", I plan to see it thorough to the finish)!


	17. A not so quick updatepreview chapter 17

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

A quick update

All right everyone… so ye, I haven't updated in a while. Unfortunately when I said last month that school would be giving me more time to work on writing I was wrong, or at least partially so. I have quite a bit written, although most of this I have not been able to put into a Word Document. I assure you that over the last month or so I haven't become lazy or anything, I am just trying to focus a lot on school. There is also the fact (and some of you may know this) that I am looking to join the military within the next couple of months/years (it all depends) so I have been busy talking with different recruiters and such. To bring up something from previous chapter's updates (quite a ways back) I am the commanding officer of a pseudo JROTC at my high school and that has also taken quite a bit of time that I could be using for other things. On the positive side of things, near the end of August final got a new computer! Went out one day, bought all the parts and then spent the next couple hours putting the thing together :P. I have recently become a bit more active on Twitch. TV. In the last week or so and have been streaming with some friends and such. I would love it if any of you dropped in for a while and said hi during one of the streams (My Twitch username is Lebenden_Toten). Oh, almost forgot to mention, got a new guitar as well that's been taking a fair amount of time as well (Look up Schechter Devil Intruder special edition).

-(End of authors note)-

Lord, Make Me Fast And Accurate, Let My Aim Be True And My Hand Faster, Then Those Whom Seek To Destroy And Do Harm To Me And Mine, And Lord If Today Is The Day LET ME DIE IN A PILE OF EMPTY BRASS

-Shepard's P.O.V.-

Today was just turning out wonderfully, first the council blatantly ignored the fact that Saren had gone rouge, then they started to question about 095. Not to mention the fact that we now had to go on a wild goose chase looking for information to prove Saren's guilt. To top it all off what little progress we had made has now ground to a standstill once we got to the door to Chora's den, for the second time today no less… we found it locked. A door that Alenko has now failed to hack open after a good five minutes. _Seems like I'm not the only one that is getting impatient…_ O95 was starting to look a bit tense.

"Stand aside" came 095's amplified voice from his helmet. _He still hasn't taken off his helmet… _After his command everyone initial moved out of the way but Alenko, after a bit of whining though he too moved to the side. As soon as the last member of the group was out of his path the SPARTAN instantly tensed up. _I wonder what he is… Oh, shit…_

The short version, the door was open, the longer version… the door was broken out of its frame when 095 had used himself basically in the same manner that one would use a battering ram… His abrupt entrance into the room was quickly greeted with gunfire, a roaring krogan, which was almost instantly cut off with a resounding crash.

"You think we should help him?" asked Garrus as he stuck his head through the doorway to see what exactly was going on. After a brief look he slowly looked back at the rest of us. "Well that's something you don't see every day…"

"What happened?"

"He threw a table… at a krogan, and won." This new bit of information was met with silence, that is until Wrex spoke.

"Get out of my way! I don't want to miss all of the fight!" He growled as he pushed past the rest of the group to get through the door.

"Well I guess we should go help out as well…" I said more to myself than anyone else.

"Are you sure?" Asked Williams as she helped Alenko up, Wrex had knocked him over while passing

"Not really."

_Well the SPARTAN sure knows how to make an entrance…_

-(095's P.O.V.)-

The second Alenko was out of the way I charged the door. Normally I wouldn't do something so drastic, but the fact of the matter was that a certain quarrian was going to be in danger rather soon and we needed to get the information from Fist ASAP. So through the doorway I went. The second I was through gunfire Erupted from all around the bar. The funny thing, was that apparently Mass accelerator rounds didn't do much to my energy shields. The defenders quickly realized this and a krogan suddenly charged at me from the bar. With my shotgun still attached to my back I wouldn't have time to grab it before he got too close.

It was then that everything seemed to slow down as 'SPARTAN time' kicked in. _I need to slow him down, where is something I can throw… This should do nicely. _

The look on the krogan's face as he saw the table flying towards him was priceless. Before it had even hit him I had drawn my magnum and began to advance upon the rest of the defenders. As I moved I was vaguely aware of a loud crash in the background. The table had slammed into the krogan and had knocked him back into the bar. As I continued to advance upon the remaining defenders positions I stated to hear gunfire and yelling from back by the doorway, it seems as if the rest of the team had finally decided to join in.

-(End of Update)-

Thank you all for sticking with the story. Believe it or not I meant for this preview to be a little shorter, ah well more for you guys to read. Like I said at the beginning, sorry for such a long time between updates, life hit sorta hard. If you have any questions or just want to talk feel free to send me a PM, also please leave a review, I want to know if there is something I can to do make the story better/more interesting (and don't just say re-write like a few others have, it's not going to happen at this point in time). Anyway thanks again and thank you all for your time!


	18. Chapter 17 (The real one)

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

The actual Chapter 17

Um shit. Yea, it's been a while since I have updated, hasn't it. So yea I'm really sorry about that. Life has been a bit rough recently with school and quite a bit of big decisions coming up for me (namely military stuff). So yea here is the actual chapter seventeen. Feel free to send me your thoughts/review, I always like to hear from those that read my writing!

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(095's P.O.V.)

/The Normandy cargo bay/

I slowly awoke to an annoying tapping sound filling my helmet. So, I did what any logical person would do and tried to ignore it until it went away. If anything it got even louder so I finally decided to open my eyes. I was greeted by the image of a slightly annoyed Ashly Williams trying to say something to me. She wasn't exactly succeeding though on the account because I had muted on of the outside mics on my armor so I could sleep the night before. _Probably should get up now._ Once I had gotten up I unmuted the input mics and finally heard what Williams was saying.

"We will be arriving at the Citadel soon and Shepard wants you to join the rest of the ground team."

After of hearing that I quickly thanked her and made my way to the armory to retrieve my gear. Once there I took a quick inventory of what I should take with me. _Ok, shotgun, Magnum, frag grenades, extra ammunition, a block of C12, and some Bio-foam. _ "Hey Ares, you think this may be overkill for a diplomatic station?"

** "Let's just go with your usual style of aggressive negotiations, always seems to work out well for us."** Ares replied.

"I like the way you think."

"**There is a reason Halsey paired us."**

"Very true…"

After getting all my gear together I then made my way up to the cockpit to meet up with the others. Once I made my way up to the rest of the ground team I saw them all staring out the viewports towards the Citadel as it slowly came into view. As they all stared in awe I just sort of stood back silently. Quickly assessing the defensive and offensive capabilities of the station and its security fleet. As I was doing this it seems that Shepard finally noticed my presence and glanced back with a bit of an amused look on her face.

"Not impressed?" She asked, still with a grin on her face.

"I've seen bigger…" was my neutral response as I continued to analyze the station and surrounding fleet.

With a small laugh Shepard turned back to the window. It only took a few more moments for Joker to get docking clearance and the Normandy down in one of the stations many docking bays. Once that was done Shepard turned to address myself, Williams, and Alenko.

"Alright, Alenko, Williams head on down to the armory and get ready to go, Anderson said he wants all of us at the meeting with the ambassador in case he wants to confirm the information with anyone else on what happened at Eden Prime." After a quick 'Yes Ma'am from both of them the left to make their way down to the armory.

"As for you, you look as if you are expecting trouble," she said in reference to all of gear I had collected earlier.

"It pays to be prepared." Was my simple reply.

"Even on a diplomatic station?" she asked.

"I have seen simpler operations go F.U.B.A.R."(Fucked up beyond any/all recognition).

"So, would you be willing to come along, Anderson told me to ask you, and the alliance could definitely use someone with your skillset if everything Joker has said about you is true."

"Well," I began to reply. "There isn't much else for me to do right now, considering I don't really know anyone here besides you guys, plus I still owe you for giving me a ride." In truth I was glad Shepard had asked for me to accompany them, after all sticking with the crew of the Normandy would probably be the most exciting thing I would do since escaping the Halo ring with John… Not to mention the fact I could probably make a difference (for good) in the Mass Effect timeline.

"Thanks, plus it will be interesting to actually see how you fit in with the ground team as well as the civilian population. You know being almost eight feet tall and looking like a walking tank must have an interesting effect on your social life." Right after she said this Ares felt the need to interject something into the conversation.

**"Pfft, your implying that he actually has a social life." **He said all of this with a rather smug tone, if he was an actual person I probably would have punched him.

"Haha, sure. I'll see for sure if he has any social skills in a little while anyway.

As it turns out I would probably have to showcase more than my meager social skills, because if I remember correctly there is a fight coming up in a certain club in the Citadel. _On second thought I may want to grab some grenades… A little shock and awe never hurt in CQC…_

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(095's P.O.V.)

/In the Citadel docking bay/

"Alright," Shepard said as she stepped off the Normandy. "We have around thirty minutes left before we need to be in Udina's office so we should probably get a move on, the Captain is going to meet us there. As soon as she said this we were on the move. The other and I noticed were all armed but had their weapons in the "collapsed" state common of mass accelerator based weapons. I on the other hand was holding my shotgun in a relaxed position across my chest. Sure the Citadel was a generally "safe" around, but I didn't really want to take any chances. I mean maybe it was just because I had been fighting the Covenant for so long, but all of the non-humans that were out and about on the Citadel were setting me a bit on edge. Especial the Turians, their mandibles reminded me a bit too much of the Elites I had fought before the Human Sangheli alliance.

**"They look a bit too much like the hinge heads don't they?" **came Ares's rumbling voice over my comms.

"More than a little I think… By the way, what have you been up to? You've been quiet for a while." I asked him as I scanned the crowds surrounding us.

**"I'm currently sorting through the Citadels data stores to find out as much as I can about this "new universe" that we have found ourselves in. I've also liberated some credits from few questionable looking bank accounts here on the Citadel, if we are stuck here we are sort of going to need money…"** was his calculated reply.

"Good thinking, if we can't find our way back to the UNSC we are probably going to be here for a while…"

As soon as I finished my little conversation with Ares we were nearing the human embassy. I took a quick moment to survey the area around us. It seems that our little group was attracting quite a bit of attention, myself, a little more than the others.

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(Acetus's perspective [NEW])

Acetus was having a good day, his parents had taken him out of school early so that the three of them could spend some time together before his father deployed on to the Indomitable, one of the Turian fleet's pride dreadnaughts. _I can't believe that in only two years Ill be the one that is getting sent off for military duty… _(Military service is mandatory in the Turian Hierarchy and starts at age fifteen).

We continued walking through the presidium on our way to one of dad's favorite restaurants when both mom and dad suddenly stopped. I on the other hand didn't notice this and kept on walking forward. Right into what seemed, at the time to be a wall. Looking up I realized that it was an eight foot tall, OD green, wall of armor and muscle, that just so happened… to be holding a firearm of some sort.

As I started to get up the armored figure quickly turned, starting to shoulder its weapon. The apology I was about to issue died as soon as I opened my mouth, the, thing, in front of me was massive, and the orange visor covering where its face would seem to be was opaque and unfeeling. Thankfully my parents had both rushed up and quickly started to apologize in my place. The giant lowered its weapon and turned to face both of my parents.

"It's not a problem, just watch out, I don't think some the other residents on the citadel, namely krogan would react very well if you ran into them instead." Came a deep rumbling voice from outer speakers on the armor.

With those parting words the armored giant followed his companions into the human embassy. Once my father thought the man was out of earshot he whispered to both myself and my mother, "I didn't think that humans grew to be that big…" Surprisingly there was a reply from just inside the embassy doors.

"Not normally." Came the same deep voice from before, just as the doors slid shut.

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(095's P.O.V.)

"Captain, accusing a council spectra is not a small endeavor!" said Udina almost in hysterics as Shepard and Anderson relayed what had happened on the Eden Prime mission. "And don't even get me started on how we explain him! He is a walking weapon! Not to mention half the things you explained to me about him are illegal in council space!"

It was at this point when I decided to step in, he was really beginning to get on my nerves. "I have an explanation for my presence if the council requests information on me." I said, his ranting was really getting bad then. The ambassador obviously didn't agree with me being there and wasn't really trying to hide this.

Seeming to give up Udina addressed Shepard and Anderson. "We need to get going to the meeting now.

_Today is going to suck… I hate politicians. _

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(Yea I'm going to be honest, I didn't want to type the council scene.)

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(095's P.O.V.)

"I fucking hate politicians."

"Don't we all," grumbles Shepard as we make our way out of Udina's office for the second time.

"So, sounds like we have some evidence to find." Says Alenko as we walk along.

_This sucks, I forgot how tedious some of this was._

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/Quite a bit later/

(095's P.O.V.)

After picking up a headstrong Krogan battle master and an incredibly sarcastic Turian back the time we got the information we needed from the clinic to know where to look for a mysterious Quarian with information we can use. We were now all standing outside of Chora's den, for the second time today.

(Shepard's P.O.V.)

Today was just turning out wonderfully, first the council blatantly ignored the fact that Saren had gone rouge, then they started to question about 095. Not to mention the fact that we now had to go on a wild goose chase looking for information to prove Saren's guilt. To top it all off what little progress we had made has now ground to a standstill once we got to the door to Chora's den, for the second time today no less… we found it locked. A door that Alenko has now failed to hack open after a good five minutes. _Seems like I'm not the only one that is getting impatient…_ O95 was starting to look a bit tense.

"Stand aside" came 095's amplified voice from his helmet. _He still hasn't taken off his helmet… _After his command everyone initial moved out of the way but Alenko, after a bit of whining though he too moved to the side. As soon as the last member of the group was out of his path the SPARTAN instantly tensed up. _I wonder what he is… Oh, shit…_

The short version, the door was open, the longer version… the door was broken out of its frame when 095 had used himself basically in the same manner that one would use a battering ram… His abrupt entrance into the room was quickly greeted with gunfire, a roaring krogan, which was almost instantly cut off with a resounding crash.

"You think we should help him?" asked Garrus as he stuck his head through the doorway to see what exactly was going on. After a brief look he slowly looked back at the rest of us. "Well that's something you don't see every day…"

"What happened?"

"He threw a table… at a krogan, and won." This new bit of information was met with silence that is until Wrex spoke.

"Get out of my way! I don't want to miss all of the fight!" He growled as he pushed past the rest of the group to get through the door.

"Well I guess we should go help out as well…" I said more to myself than anyone else.

"Are you sure?" Asked Williams as she helped Alenko up, Wrex had knocked him over while passing

"Not really."

_Well the SPARTAN sure knows how to make an entrance…_

(095's P.O.V.)

The second Alenko was out of the way I charged the door. Normally I wouldn't do something so drastic, but the fact of the matter was that a certain quarrian was going to be in danger rather soon and we needed to get the information from Fist ASAP. So through the doorway I went. The second I was through gunfire Erupted from all around the bar. The funny thing, was that apparently Mass accelerator rounds didn't do much to my energy shields. The defenders quickly realized this and a Krogan suddenly charged at me from the bar. With my shotgun still attached to my back I wouldn't have time to grab it before he got too close.

It was then that everything seemed to slow down as 'SPARTAN time' kicked in. _I need to slow him down, where is something I can throw… This should do nicely. _

The look on the krogan's face as he saw the table flying towards him was priceless. Before it had even hit him I had drawn my magnum and began to advance upon the rest of the defenders. As I moved I was vaguely aware of a loud crash in the background. The table had slammed into the krogan and had knocked him back into the bar. As I continued to advance upon the remaining defenders positions I stated to hear gunfire and yelling from back by the doorway, it seems as if the rest of the team had finally decided to join in.

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Honestly I planned for more, but I wanted to update tonight. Maybe if you guys get me enough feedback ill have another update on my birthday (the 25th of this month). So just like normal, review or send me a PM with your thoughts, I love to hear from you all. Also any thoughts/prayers for me (if you believe in that) would be appreciated, because if I get my way I will join the National Guard at the end of this month/early next month. Thanks, I'm glad I finally got around to updating, so again sorry for the date.


	19. Chapter 18

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

The actual Chapter 18

NOTE: I updated this chapter because I said Spectra, instead of Spectre, multiple times... That is what I get for not play ME for a year then writing this :P.

Seems that the authors note section is basically where I apologize for taking so long to update… Welp I didn't update on the 25th like I said I would try to, but here is the new chapter. Also thank you all for your feedback I really do appreciate all of the kind things that you guys say!  
I just now realized that up until this point I have been avoiding giving Shepard a first name… I need suggestions people, leave your thoughts in a review or a P.M.

Just a heads up I'm now going to add a quote at the beginning of every chapter… unless I forget that is.

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"I may look calm, but in my head I have killed you three times."

-(095's P.O.V.)-

"Im going to ask you one more time, where is the quarrian?" Demanded Shepard as she moved the barrel of her rifle even closer to Fist's head.

"Okay, Okay, I told her t meet with some of the Shadow Broker's agents over in the wards!" Fist yelled hands raised in the air. Immediately after his confession there was a loud bang.

"WHAT THE FUCK WREX!" yelled Shepard.

"What? I had a contract to kill him," Wrex replied as innocently he could manage, the smoking shotgun still in his hands.

"Hey," I began. "Sorry to interrupt your little disagreement, but I believe we have a Quarian that is currently in danger…

"Right, we will talk about this later," while giving Wrex a disapproving glare. To which he just shrugged and continued to act as if he had done nothing wrong.

After that little issue was resolved, well at least temporarily, we set out for the location in the wards that Fist had told 'the Quarian' to go. On our way out of the bar we ran into yet another group of armed thugs, they lasted a few seconds longer than those in the bar…

"I understand the guys in the bar, but who the hell sent them?" voiced Ashley as we were once again on our way.

"My money is on Saren," said Garrus as we neared the position where we would meet Tali, our mysterious Quarian. If what I remembered from playing the Mass Effect games all those years ago was still true, I would been in for a hell of a lot of questions about how my armor and other tech worked…

_This is going to be a long day…_

/A while later/

-(095's P.O.V.)-

We were now at the second, emphasis on second, council meeting of the day. After helping Tali out with the mercenaries that had been sent by Saren she had come back to the human embassy with us to show our new proof to ambassador Udina. That leads us to where we currently are, sitting in yet another council meeting, and it was just getting to the good part.

"In light of the new evidence provided by Commander Shepard and her crew, Saren Arterius, you have been found guilty of Killing a fellow Spectre and working against the interests of this council. Your Spectre status is hereby revoked." After the Asari councilor stopped speaking the hologram of Saren turned and leveled a particularly venomous glare at Shepard.

"You will pay for your interference Shepard…" and with those parting words the connection was cut and the image of the former Turian Spectre disappeared.

"So… what now?" Asked Shepard as the meeting with the council was coming to a close.

"Saren's Spectre status has been revoked, there is not much he can do now. Said councilor Sparatus in answer.

"But what about Eden Prime, and the Geth!" Exclaimed Captain Anderson.

_Obviously there is an old grudge here…_

"Saren has to be stopped. With that ship of his, and the Geth on his side he has the potential to create serious issues for the galactic community!" Agreed Shepard.

"We cannot just send a fleet after him when he is not a direct threat. We cannot risk provoking the Terminus Systems if un-needed. Responded the Asari council member.

"But we cannot just let him go free!" Argued Anderson.

"Well there is something we could do," Valern quietly said. (He is the Salarian council member for those confused.)

"No!" Sparatus quickly exclaimed. "Humanity is not ready for such a responsibility yet!"

"Sparatus, quiet down, let us not forget the fact that it was a Turian Spectre that just went rouge. Desperate situations call for an escalation." This quickly shut Sparatus up.

"Fine."

"Commander Shepard, please step forward." Began Tevos (Asari council member), the room had gone silent. "By the authority of this council we hereby offer you the position of council Spectre, to act as both a representative of your race, and a council asset."

Shepard was quick to respond. "I accept, and thank you for this opportunity."

"It is time that humanity is given a chance to prove itself, your first duty as Spectre will be to hunt down the fugitive Saren Aterius, you should set out as soon as possible.

"Of course," was Shepard's quick response.

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-(095's P.O.V.)-

After the second meeting with the council, much of the team had gone back to the Normandy, the few that we had picked up along the way, Tali, Wrex, and Garrus, had all decided that they wanted to tag along for the ride. Shepard and I were the only two left by the time everyone had figured out what they needed to get done before we left the Citadel. At this current point in time we were walking through the Presidium on our way to meet with Captain Anderson. Why, I have no idea. _Probably going so Anderson can hand over command of the Normandy to Shepard, that or congratulate her achievement. Neither of these would explain why I need to be there though…_

"So," Shepard said, pulling me out of my current train of thought. "You wanna tell me anything about yourself?" You know, besides the fact that you're a super soldier from another universe."

"I'm good at what I do."

"Anything beyond that?" She asked again, in a bit more demanding way I may add…

"Nothing really comes to mind."

"You're a real people person aren't you?"

"Yeup."

We walked in silence for a couple more minutes until we reached our destination, a small Levo (Levo amino acids are part of human DNA structure, Dextro amino foods, are dangerous for humans, but safe for species like Turians and Quarians.) restraint with apparently had what classified as a good selection of food.

As we walked through the doors I immediately spotted Anderson, and that wasn't all. There was another person sitting at the table with him. It seems that a certain Admiral Hacket was also invited to our little get together…

_Well this should be interesting…_

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Sorry it's a little bit shorter than normally, but meh. Again don't forget to leave your feedback for me!


	20. Chapter 19

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 19

Sorry the update is a bit later than usual, life happens, what with the end of finals and then the holidays. One good thing though, (well for me) I just finished filling out my enlistment packet for the National Guard

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-(095's P.O.V.)-

As soon as I noticed Hackett I began to jump to attention, sure he wasn't UNSC, but old habits die hard. After a quick laugh he responded in kind.

"At ease son, this isn't a formal meeting, never mind the fact that you are not even in the Alliance."

"My apologies sir," I responded"

"None are needed, Shepard," he said while Turing towards her. "Glad you both could make it. Now let's get down to business shall we," He began once everyone had taken a seat. "First of all I would like to congratulate you on obtaining Spectre status Shepard, you are the best person for it."

"Thank you sir," was Shepard's quick response.

"The council, in all of their infinite wisdom however has made the decision that Spectres have to cover the costs of all their own missions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain that you would like to save at least some of your paycheck on a retirement instead of spending it all on mission expenses."

"And you wouldn't be wrong." Shepard quietly murmured.

"Because of this unique circumstance, the Alliance is willing to foot the bill of your mission, as well as provide you with a ship and crew." After this statement he nodded to Captain Anderson.

"Shepard," began Anderson with a smile. "I'm giving command of the Normandy to you, best ship in the galaxy, same with the crew." Upon hearing this a look bordering on shock crossed Shepard's face. The Normandy was practically right out of the shipyards, the first of its kind.

"Honestly I don't know what to say, this is a lot to take in. Thank you, both of you, for your support," Shepard said after her little moment of shock had passed.

"Shepard, the Alliance has your back, don't forget it," Hackett said while Anderson nodded in agreement. "Now," Hackett began again, this time speaking to me. "Captain Anderson already briefed me on the circumstances of you getting onto the Normandy, but I would like to hear it from you.

"That, will not be a problem sir, but first, is this area clear of surveillance devices?"

"As far as I know."

At this point Ares spoke in my helmet comms.

"Might want to take a look under the table boss." At his suggestion I lifted my hand up and searched the bottom of said table. Not a moment later my hand closed around a small metallic disk. Bringing it up so that the others could see I then crushed it, the armored fingers of my hand making short work of it.

"Was that yours?" I immediately asked.

"No believe me I'm just as surprised as you are," replied the Admiral.

"I guess now that we have that out of the way, I can begin." It took a couple of minutes but I explained everything from my entrance through the slip space portal, to where we were currently sitting.

"Well I would say that stranger things have happened, but I can't for the life of me think of something to top that." Hackett said after a moment of silence.

"I'm still trying to figure out all the details myself sir."

I would say that the Alliance will do its best to get you back home, after all it seems like you have quite a few of your own problems to deal with. Unfortunately, I don't think our engineers or scientists would even know where to begin. There is something that I think I can do for you however, that is if you're interested."

"I'm all ears, I figure that there isn't that high of a chance of me getting home regardless anyway," was my reply. I had figured that even if I had a chance to get home, my help was probably needed more here in the Mass Effect universe, what with the Reapers and the whole 'impending galactic doom' thing.

"Well, you said you were military correct?"

"Yes sir, that is correct."

"If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been in?" Hackett asked.

"Well that depends, much of my military career at this pion in my life has been spent in cryogenic stasis."

"If you don't mind, can you give us the time length of both?"

"Counting cryo sleep, it would be well over thirty years." After saying that a slight look of shock appeared on the groups faces. " Not counting cryo, I have been in the UNSC since I was sixteen, that would make it close to say, nine or ten years, all of that time spent either training, or more often than not, fighting.:

Shepard was the first one to speak after my little reveal. "I just wanted to mention, all that training and time in combat really shows, when we had to deal with the mercenaries Saren sent after us. Let's just say I don't doubt anything he just said.

"Well, that definitely puts most of my concerns at rest for what I'm about to do," began Hackett. "I would like to formally offer you a position in the Alliance military as well as a guarantee to have to chance to go through N school after Alliance BCT. The N program is the highest Special Forces group that currently exists in the Alliance military.

"Ares, what do you think?" I asked over a closed comm channel.

"Whatever you think is right boss, I'm with you."

"Well first of all Admiral, thank you for the offer, I'm willing to accept, as long as you can guarantee a few things."

"What do you have in mind?"

"After going through BCT and N school, assuming I make it, I would like to be stationed with Shepard and her crew, I have a feeling they will need all the help they can get. My other requirements are that I am permitted to use my own equipment, even if it only after graduation from training, and the last thing is that I will not under any circumstances be separated from my A.I."

"Provided that you keep knowledge of the A.I. on a need to know basis, I can make all that happen."

"Then you have got yourself a deal." _Of course this would mean that I would at least miss a good bit of the first Mass Effect, but hell I found some parts boring anyway._

"Great, after we are done here Anderson and I will take you over to the embassy and take care of all the paperwork and such. Anderson if it ok with you I was going to assign you as his handler throughout this process considering the circumstances and the fact that the two of you already are somewhat familiar with each other."

"Well Shepard, you should probably prepare your crew to go, and, well I guess that you will be joining Anderson and I back to the embassy." Hackett said as we all moved to get up from our table. "How should we address you by the way?" He added as we began to move out of the restraint. "095 doesn't sound like much of name."

"I guess you're right, 095 isn't much of a name, and my actual name is Andrew, guess I will have to get used to using it again." I replied after a moment's thought.

"Well I guess we are off then, Shepard, good luck to you."

"Thank you sir, and Andrew, I look forward to when you formally join the crew of the Normandy."

"As do I."

_This is gonna be one hell of a ride…_

About thirty minutes after Shepard and I met with Hackett and Anderson the three of us were all sitting at a table in a small private office in the human embassy. I was sitting on one side, (sitting in a chair re-enforced to the point that it could hold a krogan, for obvious reasons) and the two Alliance officers on the other side.

"So," Hackett began. "You obviously have quite a bit of combat experience in your previous experiences, the question remains however, where were you positioned in the rank structure? This will help us determine where to put you once you have formally enlisted in the Alliance."

"When I well, 'ended' (ended as in got trapped on the Forward Unto Dawn) my career with the UNSC I held the position of Staff Sergeant (E-6), this was not however in a traditional sense. I was in charge of a Special Forces squad that typically consisted of enlisted individuals anywhere from the E-1, through E-5, area. That being said, I was in charge of this unit for almost the entirety of the war, and in many circumstances, my position as a SPARTAN would end up with me in charge of some of the lower ranking officers. As a side note however, nearly all of my leadership experience is combat related. In all honesty I am not entirely sure where that would put me, in the end I trust your judgement."

"Ok then, we will likely figure that out as soon as you finish N school, I have a feeling that you may not have that much of a problem with it. Here is the contract with everything that we spoke about before, I'll give you a moment to read it over and ask questions. When you are ready just go ahead and sign at the bottom of the last page."

It only took me a few minutes for me to read over and double check that everything was for sure there. Once I had done so I went ahead and signed, gently sliding the packet back to the two of them once I had done so.

"Well son, welcome to the Alliance, I'm reasonably sure that I speak for the two of us when I say that we believe you will not have a problem fitting in." As Anderson congratulated me I just began to realize the weight of what I had just done. _Out of one military and into another, oh boy… Basic training here I come… again._

_Well, that was fun…_


	21. Chapter 20

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

Chapter 20

So… I was looking at story statistics, and I am fucking amazed people. As of my typing this "A Feeling of Importance has a grand total of 49,398 views, 167 Favorites, 226 Followers, and finally 144 reviews. You guys never cease to amaze me, so thank you for all of your support!

Another quick note of celebration, the story is now over 40k words long!

Just a heads up ahead of time, the timeline of the story may seem a bit longer in between events than it is in the game.

** This is the longest chapter I have uploaded yet that is filled with all story content!**

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Being in your mid-twenties and going to boot camp had a bit of a catch to go along with it. The individuals that did so were considered to be "old" just because of the fact that most individuals attending were either just out of high school or somewhere in the middle of college and the "older" individuals normally could not physically keep up with everyone else. Myself being somewhere around twenty five, it's hard to tell considering all of the cryo sleep between operations, this stereotype would include me. That being said, me being a SPARTAN may be a bit unfair.

_I think I'm going to enjoy this._ I though as the Alliance transport that myself and the rest of the recruits that would going through training at the same time as myself came to a stop. Looking around I noticed quite a few young faces, many of the individuals probably having come from right out of high school. All of the others on the transport looked exited, all of them thinking that they one day would be the one shown on all of the Alliance recruitment posters. _They are all about to have one hell of a wake up call. _

Just as some of the recruits began to start wondering what was going on the first drill Sergeant entered the transport and began yelling. _Here we go again._

/Two weeks later/

About two weeks into basic the instructors began to get extremely suspicious of me, by Wednesday of the third week I had already been asked if I was prior military, I had also been sent to the base's med bay twice by the senior DI to see if I had been using any performance enhancing drugs. After the second drug test I was starting to suspect that the higher ups had neglected to inform the instructors of the circumstances of my enlistment into the Alliance.

By week four it seemed that Anderson had finally stepped in and had at least partially informed the drill instructors in charge of my unit of my situation and they quit bothering me (well relatively so). Basic past that point seemed to go by fairly quickly and nothing else came up. Well, at least nothing until hand to hand combat training. It was actually quite comical. All of the other recruits completely refused to spar with me. In the end one of the DIs stepped up. Said drill instructor was actually a very good hand to hand combatant. That being said though, he was still no match for a SPARTAN. To the rest of the recruits it was nothing short of amazing to see a fellow trainee beat an instructor at their own game. The match lasted about all of five minutes, I almost felt bad about the fact that I had been holding back, though if I hadn't the Instructor probably wouldn't have survived our 'friendly' little match.

/A few weeks later/

Graduating basic was a little bit of a relief, not because I was worried, I was actually just bored as hell. It had been nice though if only for a little while to just be looked at by other soldier as one of them, just a brother in arms. It was difficult being a SPARTAN sometimes because of the actions of various SPARTAN IIs and IIIs over the course of the human covenant war many people came to put SPARRTANS up on a pedestal as the example of a perfect soldier. It tended to make many conversations outside of combat a bit awkward.

I hung around for a few minutes afterwards talking with some of the other former recruits, they were all talking about what came next for themselves. Suddenly out of the blue one of them spoke to me, "Hey Braun, what's next for you?" After a few moments of consideration I decided that it wouldn't hurt to indulge the group's curiosity.

"N school," was my quick and simple answer. After saying that nearly all of group I was standing with stopped what they were doing and looked at me, a moment of silence passed and then the original speaker spoke up again.

"I though they normally got people for N school from Veteran units, not some recruit strait out of BCT… no offense."

"And I'm just a shining example of a naive boot strait out of basic." Was my deadpan reply.

"Well sure you…" the speaker's response was cut off as one of our former drill instructors coming over.

"What's all this about?" he asked, a bit of genuine curiosity in his voice. After a moment's hesitation the recruit from before spoke up and explained.

"Braun says that he is going to N school next." At hearing this the DI let out a short laugh before responding.

"Personally I'm not surprised, there is no way this was his first time through military training of some sort. There's also the fact that he broke almost every Alliance recorded in the book." At hearing this the group once again gave me a rather surprised look to which I just responded with a shrug.

"Anyway," the DI began while turning to face me. "I was asked to inform you that there is a Captain Anderson waiting outside to take you to your next assignment."

"Thank you for the heads up."

"Not a problem Staff Sergeant," and with those parting works he walking away with a mischievous smile on his face.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" exclaimed a few of the recruits (or at least a variation of said phrase). "You're a fucking NCO!? How?"

"Long story, maybe I'll tell you all one day. Anyway I have to go I'll hopefully see you all later." After saying a few more goodbyes I quickly made my way over to where I had spotted Anderson speaking with a couple other servicemen and women a moment ago. After seeing that he was no longer busy I walked up to him and snapped to a salute.

"Sir."

"At ease," he said after returning my salute. "You look quite a bit different without all of your armor."

"I still haven't quite gotten used to being out of my armor myself sir."

"I know what you mean, it's hard to leave yourself unprotected for so long, well relatively speaking."

\ "It will be nice to get back to normal, well as normal as things can be for someone such as myself…"

"I'm glad you are able to view such a lifestyle as normal, it seems that humanity may have a chance to prove itself to the rest of the council races in the near future, what with this business with Saren. I have a feeling someone with your skills set will prove invaluable," He said with a smile before continuing. "As you are aware the original plan was to put you right into N school after basic, but if you want there is another option available to you if you should want it.

"Would you be willing to expand upon that a little more?" I asked, I admit I wasn't expecting this.

"Well Admiral Hackett and I have been speaking and have both come to the rather apparent fact that Commander Shepard needs all of the help she can get in her hunt for Saren. You are an unknown element and in this whole hunt for Saren, unknown and out of the ordinary has become the new standard for Shepard and her team. As of right now you are the most underutilized asset available to the Alliance. We are willing to put you on Shepard's crew now as N7, the only catch is that the N7 position would be a sort of, 'trial' period. After this whole thing with Saren is over with Shepard will be the judge of whether or not you pass this 'trial' period and transition to full N7.

"Alright, I only have one more question, when can I leave," after I said this a small smile crept across Anderson's face.

"Believe it or not the Normandy is going to stop back here at Earth to re-supply and get a day or so of R&amp;R in. They are supposed to be arriving sometime later today. In the meantime you and I are going to retrieve some of your gear from storage.

"I'm ready when you are then sir." I couldn't wait to get back into the action.

"Then follow me, we are going to take a shuttle to the location where all of your gear is in storage.

As Anderson and I walked over to an Alliance pattern shuttle I began thinking of how everything would play out over the next few days. It would be nice speaking with Ares again, for he had gone into a sort of 'hibernation' throughout the course of my time at Alliance basic.

After taking a seat across from Anderson the two of us sat in a comfortable silence as the shuttle took off and began nearing our destination. After a minute or so I got Anderson's attention and began to speak, "Sir I just wanted to thank you, yourself and Hackett probably went through a lot and put quite a bit of faith in me by believing my story and then getting me into the Alliance. For that I am really grateful, especially when considering the fact that the only think I have known since the age of sixteen has been military life."

"You don't have to thank me, it's been a nice break from my usual duties, and anyway, I have a feeling you will do more for the Alliance in a few weeks than many people will in a lifetime, what with all of your experience and unique skill set."

After our little conversation we rode the rest of the way to the storage facility in silence. When the shuttle finally came to a stop both Anderson and I exited the shuttle to find ourselves standing in front of a rather large, heavily guarded, warehouse. As Anderson began leading the way towards a small security post that also served as a door inside he spoke up.

"The facility holds a large amount of the more 'sensitive ordinance on the base, so we stored your gear in here in an attempt to keep away prying eyes."

Once we made it to the door a Sergeant inside waved us on through the checkpoint. Anderson led the way through what was almost a maze of shelving units and crates, all filled to capacity with high end Alliance gear and other ordinance. Eventually we came to a stop in front of what looked like an over sized shipping crate. Anderson walked up to it and placed his hand on what appeared to be a bio-metric scanner and then a couple seconds later there was a loud clunking sound as the locking mechanism on the crate disengaged. The doors then opened and the first thing that caught my attention was the M12 Warthog that Shepard had somehow managed to get off of the Forward Unto Dawn when they found me. The next immediate object of my attention was a rather large crate marked armor. I moved over to the crated and began to open the various latches holding it shit. As I did that Anderson walked up behind and began to speak.

"I hope you don't mind, but we took the liberty of giving your armor a bit of a paint job to match your new position of N7," no sooner had he finished saying that I had finally pulled open the last clasp holding the case shut. Inside the case was the familiar shape of my custom suit of MJOLNER. There was one difference however as Anderson had mentioned, the pain, the armor was now a simple matte black with the iconic red detailing of the N7s.

"I like it, it's quite amazing how a new coat of paint can make some things look brand new… well almost, not much paint can do to fix that," I said while pointing out one of the more prominent battle scars on the left shoulder pauldron.

"Very true, now unfortunately not all of this can fit on the Normandy," he said while gesturing at a smaller storage container to his side. "Anything you can fit in here, minus your armor and any ammunition, is free to come with you."

After Anderson informed me of the restrictions I immediately began to sort through the various pieces of military hardware in the larger container. _Alright, shotgun, sidearm, sniper, supplemental armor plates, biofoam, grenades, shit… now the real decision, Spartan Laser, or rocket launcher, actually if we are going against Geth the laser is probably the best choice._ After that particularly hard decision I jammed a few other final items into the case, an energy sword, an assault rifle and two pairs of ODST BDUs that I had managed to grab. Shutting the lid of the case and locking it with a biometric print of my hand I then stood and turned to face Anderson.

"There is an armor maintenance station towards the entrance, we can stop there on the way out for you to get back into armor." Anderson told me as I picked up the heavy case containing said armor. "I'll have some people come by and pick up the case with all of your gear and take it to the spaceport where you will join the Normandy."

"Thank you sir," was my quick reply as we began to make our way back to the front of the complex. Once we made it to the armor station Anderson left me to get all of my gear on. Slowly piece by piece the armored shell that I had grown familiar with over the years once again began to cover my augmented self, surrounding me in a shell of grade A titanium plating capable of protecting me from almost anything the battlefield could throw at me. I was no longer just a soldier, I was once again the demon that the covenant had come to know and fear over years of warfare.

The last piece of armor to go on was the helmet, and as soon as it was on a deep menacing voice came through the helmet's internal speakers. **"Welcome back SPARTAN 095."**

"It's good to be back Ares."

**"You have no idea how cliché that just sounded."**

"Oh no, I'm completely aware, I just couldn't think of anything better to say."

**"You are hopeless."**

"Shut up."

/Later that day/

I stood at the end of one of the various military docking stations at the Vancouver space port waiting for the doors of the Normandy to open. Captain Anderson stood beside me also waiting. After a few moments the Normandy's airlock hissed open and out stepped Commander Shepard along with Garrus and Alenko.

"Well this is a surprise," She said as she walked up to the Captain and I. It was actually quite funny, Shepard was tall for a normal human, a little over six feet tall it seems, but standing next to myself nearly everyone seemed rather small in comparison, especial since I stood around a foot taller in most circumstances. "I thought you guys were having him go through all of basic and N school before join us?" She continued.

"Plans change," was Anderson's simple response. Shepard then looked back to be before speaking once again.

"I have to say the black and red looks good on that armor, we will have to see if your skills are up to expectation," she said with a grin across her face.

**"Ooh, I like her, now I'm not the only one who is going to make fun of you."** Ares spoke up over my internal speakers.

_This is going to be a long couple of months…_

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Thank you all for reading and your continued support, let me know what you think of this chapter!


	22. Important Update

Lebenden_Toten

A Feeling of Importance

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**VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE**

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So this is not an actual update as of yet. I have not given up on this story or anything either. Now that that is out of the way, apologies are in order. I have not been able to update due to life. As some of you have realized, as of a few months ago I am now a member of the United States Military, the Army National Guard to be specific. That as well as finishing up my junior year of high school thrown in with track and spring soccer has really taken much of my free time. All of that being said, I have still been writing, I have quite a bit done, but there is a catch. If you all look at where the last chapter left off, Novaria hasn't happened yet. The issue is most of what I have done is all related to Virmire. I would wait and release it all as one massive update, but here is where me being in the military comes in. I ship out to Basic training in less than a month so my time is rather limited. So I'm going to let you guys decide what the plan will be.

Option number one: I add in what little I have of the events leading up to Novaria, summarize the rest, and then give you all that I have done on Virmire. There is a substantial (At least for me) amount of writing included in this already.

Option number two: Nothing new is posted and you all have to wait until either late August or September for a full update (albeit this update will be much larger than usual.

So, like I said you all get to decide, to give me your feedback on the issue either leave a review or send me a Private message. If you have any questions, concerns or anything else like that feel free to address those as well. Thank you all for your patience.

I keep thinking of the one guest that left a review on the last chapter I posted asking what the update schedule of the story was… man I feel like an asshole.

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Thank you all for your time, and like I said, contact me with you opinion.


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